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WARSAW – Quadra FNX Mining Ltd. shareholders have approved a $2.87-billion takeover by KGHM Polska Miedz SA, in Poland’s biggest bid abroad, designed to deepen the Polish copper producer’s global reach.
Quadra shareholders cast 78.58% of shares in favour of the deal, the Canadian company said Monday at an extraordinary meeting in Vancouver.
The takeover by the Lubin, Poland-based company, with Europe’s largest mine output, is “attractive,” Quadra chief executive Paul Blythe told Polish daily Rzeczpospolita on Feb. 16. Institutional Shareholder Services, which advises pension and mutual funds on proposals in shareholder meetings, backed the bid, Quadra said on Feb. 6.
“This is the first spectacular takeover deal by a Polish company and it’s being noticed,” said Leszek Iwaszko, a Warsaw-based analyst at Société Générale SA. “KGHM still has a long way to go to join the world’s premier league, but this purchase will help it become a global player.”
Companies from Poland, the biggest post-Communist country in the European Union, have stepped up expansion plans in the last decade, fighting for supremacy in central Europe.
Vancouver-based Quadra is KGHM’s second Canadian transaction since 2010 after the company bought a stake in a joint venture with Abacus Mining & Exploration Corp. for $37-million. KGHM, which is buying miners outside Poland to cut production costs and raise output, will pay cash for Quadra as it is set to report a record 11.2-billion zloty ($3.5-billion) in net income for 2011.
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