I have not watched most of B2's Denver presentations but I do recall their MD saying that they were looking for deals - I think that was probably around the time they took over our CGX (where I had a few shares, lucky to sell them on the spike of the announced takeover given how B2 performed afterwards).
B2 may appear to have got PIR cheaply given what has been found there, but they also paid via a high level of dilution with PIR shareholders getting 26% of the merged entity, and that included (from memory 2 mines in South America, one in the Philippines and a mine then under construction in Namibia, plus being part of a well functioning builder of mines with access to capital. The takeover was in 2014, when WAF would have had difficulty in raising funds on advantageous terms - the size of the investment there would have resulted in a lot of shares being issued (due to the depressed share price) and low priced gold hedging locked in to the satisfy bankers.
I am not a believer that anyone is suppressing WAF's share price - its being driven by the poor market sentiment, the concern about share dilution to fund a mine, its location in Africa (note that Barrick shareholders are diversifying away from Africa), the gold price and other uncertainties. Volume traded is pretty low for a company with 700m issued shares.
If B2 sees value for itself then it will come and make a fair offer for WAF at some point in time. In the meantime WAF needs to progress its mine development plan and find more high grade ounces in order to get a lift to the share price.
loki
WAF Price at posting:
28.0¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Held
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