Australia’s IGO Ltd said on Tuesday that nickel producer Western Areas’ board of directors plan to terminate a A$1.10 billion ($829.29 million) acquisition deal by the nickel and lithium miner.
Shares of Western Areas are currently halted, pending an announcement related to their proposed acquisition by IGO. They did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
IGO said it is its understanding that Western Areas’ independent expert concluded the offer was not in the best interests of Western Areas’ shareholders while noting that it had neither received nor reviewed the draft report from the independent expert.
Shares of IGO were down as much as 2.9% in early trading, its biggest intraday percentage drop since March 30.
In December last year, IGO agreed to acquire Western Areas in an all-cash deal at A$3.36 for each Western Areas share, but recently warned that recent volatility in nickel prices would delay the acquisition.
Source: Reuters.com