SolGold Board Backs Sweetened $1.13 Billion Takeover Bid From Jiangxi Copper

By Megan Cheah

Chinese state-owned miner Jiangxi Copper has won the support of SolGold's board after making a sweetened $1.13 billion bid for the U.K.-listed company backed by BHP and Newmont.

After two prior bids were rejected, Jiangxi's revised takeover offer has cleared the board hurdle, bringing it one step closer to the finish line.

Jiangxi upsized the deal terms to 28 pence per share of the mineral exploration company, a 7.1% premium to the stock's price before the initial proposal was disclosed, and an increase from the 26 pence offered previously.

The non-binding offer values the U.K.-listed company at 842 million pounds, or about $1.13 billion, Jiangxi and SolGold said in a joint statement Friday.

SolGold's board said it "would be minded to recommend" that shareholders vote in favor of the deal if Jiangxi makes a firm offer by the Dec. 26 deadline.

So far, shareholders holding nearly 41% of SolGold have said they intend to support the deal.

These include BHP Billiton--a unit of mining giant BHP Group--and gold miner Newmont. SolGold's co-founder, Nicholas Mather, is also backing the revised proposal, Friday's statement showed.

Jiangxi currently owns 12.2% of the issued shares of SolGold, which specializes in gold and copper mining, and has operations in Latin America.

The development comes after SolGold's board rejected Nanchang-based Jiangxi's previous two proposals in November.

SolGold's London shares last closed 8.7% lower at GBP25.75. Jiangxi's Hong Kong and Shanghai-listed shares were up 1.4% and 0.7% respectively in early trade on Monday.

There has been a flurry of dealmaking in the mining sector, fueled in part by companies' push to secure supplies of copper, a key component in sectors from data centers to electric vehicles.

In September, Anglo American and Teck Resources agreed to a merger that will create one of the world's biggest copper producers in one of the largest-ever deals in the mining industry.

Write to Megan Cheah at megan.cheah@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 14, 2025 22:00 ET (03:00 GMT)