A new foreign bidder has entered the Canadian resources market. Polish state-controlled copper miner KGHM Polska Miedz S.A. made a $2.86 billion friendly cash offer for Vancouver-based rival Quadra FNX Mining Ltd. on December 6. The deal would be the largest overseas acquisition by a Polish company. Poland’s treasury ministry owns 32 percent of Polska Miedz and said on January 26 that it backs the deal. Polksa Miedz is Europe’s largest producer of mined copper, and is the ninth-largest copper miner and third-largest silver producer in the world.
At press time Quadra shareholders were scheduled to vote on the $15 per share offer on February 20. Quadra agreed not to look for higher bids, but analysts expected competing offers for its mines in the United States and Canada and its copper deposits in Chile. The company was created in 2010 when Quadra Mining Ltd. bought FNX Mining Co. for about $1 billion.
