Barrick Gold faced pressure today as reports emerged that a major shareholder will reject any bid for Acacia Mining below 271p per share.
It comes as a blow to the Canadian miner, which is mulling a 196p per share bid for the company.
Read more: Deadline extended for Barricks Acacia bid
An assessment by SRK Consulting, released by Acacia yesterday, put the “preferred value” for the company at 271p per share. It used a $1,300 per ounce gold price.
“We cannot see any logical reason to be willing to sell a security without marking it to market, and in this case that means marking it to $1,400 a troy ounce,” Odey Asset Management wrote in a letter to Acacia, seen by the Financial Times.
Odey, which holds more than two per cent of Acacias shares, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
It comes after Barrick earlier took aim at Acacias quarterly results, released earlier this week.
Gold production rose 51 per cent in the second quarter compared to the three months prior.
But Barrick said the results were based on exploring a part of its mine which is richer in gold than the resist.
