The Revolution is dead.
When we left our story yesterday, South Africa's Gold Fields Limited (NYSE:GFI) was facing a tough shareholder vote, a shareholder insurrection, and a pending court case -- all standing in the way of its acquiring Canadian target Bolivar Gold. In reverse order, the court battle remains to be fought (next week), the shareholder insurrection continues to simmer, but the vote, at least, is over. And won.
Yesterday at a general meeting, Bolivar's shareholders held their vote on whether to accept Gold Fields' raised bid of $3.20 (Canadian) for their shares. The result was a Reagan vs. Mondale-scale landslide: After crunching the numbers given in the press release, I calculate that approximately 73.7% of all Bolivar shares were voted in favor of the buyout.
If you assume that the leader of the shareholder insurrection, Scion Capital, both attended the meeting and voted all 19.1% worth of its holdings against the merger, that means that the fund was only able to attract another 7.3% of the outstanding votes to its cause. Moreover, it's also safe to assume that Gold Fields voted its own 14.5% interest in Bolivar in favor of the deal.
Subtract Gold Fields' interest from the winning votes, and the transaction still attracted a clear majority of 59.2% of all outstanding votes in favor. The margin was similarly large among warrants voted, where 66.5% of all warrants outstanding were voted "aye," and subtracting out Gold Fields' 5.1% ownership of warrants would again leave a clear majority in favor of the takeover.
What does this mean for investors? Simply put, Gold Fields has won. Yes, Scion is almost certainly unhappy with this result and is probably still inclined to fight it. But, no, it has no chance of winning. Assuming Scion proceeds with its court challenge next week and attempts to have Gold Fields' votes declared "ineligible," the deal will remain approved on the strength of the support of the non-Gold Fields shareholders.
All that remains, then, is for the deal to be approved by the Supreme Court of the Yukon Territory of Canada, which will consider it next Thursday (two days after Scion's court challenge). If the Territorial Supreme Court signs off, though, Gold Fields should be home free.
For more 24-carat Foolishness, watch these Takes pan out:
- Keep Your Stinkin' Gold
- Gold Rush Redux
- Canadian Gold Doesn't Glitter
- Gold Offer Loses Shine
- Gold Fever Fuels Feud
- Will This Takeover Plan Turn Into Gold?
Fool contributor Rich Smith does not own any of the companies mentioned in this article.
