Equinox, Calibre alter terms of planned business combination
Equinox Gold Corp. [EQX-TSX, EQX-NYSE] Calibre Mining Corp. [CXB-TSX, CXBMF-OTC] have agreed to amend the terms of a proposed business combination that was previously announced on February 23, 2025.
Under the terms of the amended agreement, Caibre shareholders will receive 0.35 Equinox common shares for each Calibre share held immediately prior to the effective date of the transaction. That compares to 0.31 Equinox common shares for each Calibre common share in the earlier agreement.
The new exchange ratio represents a 10% premium to the closing price of Calibre shares on February 21, 2025, the last trading day before the transaction was announced. Upon completion of the transaction, existing Equinox Gold shareholders and former Calibre shareholders will own approximately 61% and 39% of the outstanding shares of the combined company.
To allow Equinox Gold shareholders and Calibre security holders to consider and vote on the amended agreement, both Equinox and Calibre are adjourning their respective shareholder meetings that were scheduled for April 24, 2025. The Equinox meeting will now be held on May 1, 2025 at 1.30 p.m (Vancouver time). The Calibre meeting will now be held on the same day at 10:00 a.m. (Vancouver time).
The combined entity is expected to rank as Canada’s second largest gold producer, and one of the top 15 gold producers globally.
The combined company, which will continue under the name Equinox Gold Co. will emerge as an Americas-focused, diversified gold producer with a portfolio of operating mines in five countries, anchored in Canada by the Greenstone mine in Ontario and soon-to-be-producing Valentine Gold mine in Newfoundland.
Collectively, these two cornerstone assets (Greenstone and Valentine) are expected to produce an average of 590,000 ounces annually when operating at capacity. The combined company is expected to produce 950,000 ounces of gold in 2025, excluding production from Valentine or Los Filos mine in Mexico. New Equinox Gold has the capacity to produce over 1.2 million ounces annually with Greenstone and Valentine at capacity.
The combined company will see an immediate increase in production at a time of record high gold prices, driving superior free cash flow to quickly deleverage.
Equinox Gold shares eased 0.2% or $0.02 to $9.23. The shares trade in a 52-week range of $10.35 and $6.18. Calibre rose 2.5% or $0.08 to $3.21. The shares trade in a 52-week range of $3.33 and $1.73
New Equinox is expected to benefit from the expertise and successful track record of two industry leaders: Ross Beaty and Featherstone Capital (Blayne Johnson and Doug Forster) who have created substantial shareholder value over multiple decades in the mining sector. All of them will serve of the board of directors of New Equinox Gold.