Sierra Metals Responds to Alpayana’s Increased Offer; Makes No Recommendation to Shareholders
06 Maio 2025 - 8:00AM
Business Wire
Sierra Metals Inc. (TSX: SMT | OTCQX: SMTSF | BVL: SMT)
("Sierra Metals" or the "Company") provides an update
in respect of the press release and notice of variation and
extension dated May 1, 2025 (the "Notice of Variation"),
filed by Alpayana S.A.C. ("Alpayana"), announcing an
increase to the offer price for its proposed take-over bid to
acquire all of the common shares of the Company ("Common
Shares") from C$1.11 to C$1.15 per Common Share (the
"Revised Offer").
The Board of Directors of Sierra Metals (the "Board"),
after consultation with its independent legal and financial
advisors and based on the unanimous recommendation of the Special
Committee of independent directors of the Board (the "Special
Committee"), has unanimously determined to make NO
RECOMMENDATION as to whether holders of Common Shares
("Shareholders") should accept or reject the Revised Offer
(the "Revised Recommendation").
The Board notes that it had hoped to reach agreed terms with
Alpayana for a supported transaction. Following the termination of
those discussions, the Board makes its Revised Recommendation due
to a number of factors, including, but not limited to, the
continued extensive conditionality and uncertainty attached to the
Revised Offer, noting that the Revised Offer continues to contain
conditions which Alpayana is aware cannot be satisfied (as
described further below).
The Board will provide greater context regarding the Revised
Recommendation in a Notice of Change to Directors’ Circular (the
"Notice of Change") to be filed on SEDAR+ (www.sedarplus.ca)
under Sierra’s issuer profile. The Notice of Change will also be
mailed to all persons required to be sent a copy under applicable
securities laws.
The Board encourages Shareholders, including those who may have
already accepted the Revised Offer and who may lawfully withdraw
their deposited Common Shares, to consider the Revised Offer and
the information contained in the Notice of Change carefully and
make their own decisions regarding whether or not to accept the
Revised Offer. Unless extended, the Revised Offer expires at 5:00
p.m. (Toronto time) on May 12, 2025.
The Notice of Change will include a letter to shareholders from
the Board, which will summarize the principal factors considered by
the Board in reaching its recommendation, set out below.
- Sierra Metals and BMO Conducted an
Exhaustive Strategic Review. Since December 16, 2024, the
date that Alpayana announced its intention to make its original
offer at an offer price of C$0.85 in cash per Common Share (the
"Original Offer"), the Special Committee, with the
assistance of the Company's management and BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc.
("BMO"), has worked to actively pursue a broad range of
strategic alternatives in order to identify other options that may
be in the best interests of Sierra Metals and its Shareholders, and
that might have resulted in a transaction superior to the Original
Offer. The Special Committee considered the outcome of this
process, the range of other strategic alternatives available to
Sierra Metals and the Revised Offer and concluded that the Revised
Offer represented the best alternative available to Sierra Metals
and its Shareholders.
- Significant Premium to Market
Price. The Revised Offer of C$1.15 per Common Share
represents a premium of approximately 49% to the closing price of
the Common Shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange on December 13,
2024 (the last trading day prior to the public disclosure of the
Original Offer). The premium to Sierra Metals' Shareholders is
effectively higher when considering that the share price for peers
of Sierra Metals has declined 11%, since the Original Offer. The
Revised Offer also represents a 35% increase from the Original
Offer of C$0.85 per Common Share.
- 100% Liquidity and Certainty of
Value. The Revised Offer provides 100% cash consideration
for the Common Shares, giving Shareholders certainty of value and
immediate liquidity at an attractive price in the face of volatile
markets.
- Project Execution and Development
Risk. The Board and the Special Committee believe that the
Revised Offer provides Shareholders with a fair value for the
Company's portfolio of projects, including both the Bolivar and
Yauricocha mines, without the long-term risks associated with the
development and execution of operational improvements at both
Bolivar and Yauricocha.
- BMO Fairness Opinion. BMO provided
the Special Committee with a written opinion to the effect that, as
of the date of such opinion, subject to the assumptions,
limitations and qualifications set out therein, the consideration
proposed to be received by Shareholders (other than Alpayana) under
the Revised Offer is fair, from a financial point of view, to
Shareholders.
- The Board Believes in the Potential
Upside of the Company's Assets. In the event that the
Revised Offer is not successful, the Board believes in the
potential of the Company to continue on a stand-alone basis.
Specifically, the Company's two copper producing assets, the
Yauricocha mine in Peru and the Bolivar mine in Mexico, both
contain significant near mine, brownfield and greenfield
exploration potential that could be leveraged to drive significant
long-term value for the Company. At Yauricocha, the Company
obtained the permit to mine below level 1120 where 95% of the
mine's current mineral reserves sit, allowing the mine to operate
at full capacity (currently 3,600 tpd) since Q4 2024. The Company
believes there is significant exploration opportunity below level
1120 as the geology appears open in all directions. Sierra Metals
is also confident in its exploration efforts at Bolivar and its
ability to deliver additional mineral resources to support the
Company's plan to increase production capacity from 5,000 tpd to
7,500 tpd in the mid-term.
- The Revised Offer Remains Highly
Conditional. The Revised Offer contains a significant number
of conditions which must be satisfied or waived before Alpayana is
obligated to take up and pay for any Common Shares tendered. Many
of the conditions are not subject to materiality thresholds or
reasonableness standards or any other objective criteria, but
rather are in Alpayana's sole discretion. Further, Alpayana is
aware that certain conditions of the Revised Offer, as further set
out below, cannot be satisfied.
- The Revised Offer contains a condition that no shareholder
rights plan or similar plan shall have been adopted by the Company.
On December 16, 2024, Alpayana announced its intention to make the
Original Offer. Following this announcement, on December 30, 2024,
Sierra Metals entered into a shareholder rights plan to ensure that
all Shareholders are treated fairly in connection with any
take-over bid. Later, on December 30, 2024, Alpayana formally
commenced the Original Offer, which contained a condition that no
shareholder rights plan or similar plan should have been adopted by
the Company, despite the fact that such condition could not have
been satisfied at the time the Original Offer was formally
commenced. This condition remains in the Revised Offer.
- The Revised Offer contains a condition that the Company shall
not have adopted or amended, or taken any other action with respect
to, any bonus, profit sharing, incentive, salary or other
compensation plan, severance, change in control, employment or
other employee benefit plan, agreement, fund or arrangement for the
benefit of any officer, director or consultant, except for limited
exceptions. Following the Original Offer, which the Board
determined to be highly opportunistic, well below the fair value of
the Company and which BMO had determined to be inadequate, from a
financial point of view, to the Shareholders, the Board determined
to make amendments to the employment agreements of certain officers
of the Company, to provide such officers with adequate protection
in the event that such officers are terminated without cause within
12 months of a change of control and to ensure the continued
retention of such officers as a result of the turbulence and
uncertainty created by the opportunistic offer. The particulars of
such change of control provisions were fully described in the
Directors' Circular of the Company dated January 13, 2025 under the
heading "Arrangements Between Sierra and its Directors and Officers
– Compensation Agreements and Arrangements". Such changes are
customary in connection with unsolicited takeover bids and were
necessary for retention purposes to allow the Company to continue
to operate while the Board assessed the Original Offer and
potential alternatives. Alpayana was aware of these change of
control provisions at the time it made the Revised Offer, however,
such condition remains in the Revised Offer.
- The Revised Offer contains a condition that the Company shall
not have issued, sold, granted or awarded any Common Shares or
other equity or voting interests or any options or rights to
acquire Common Shares. Following the conclusion of the financial
year-ended December 31, 2024, as part of the Company's regular
compensation process, the Company issued an aggregate of 2,370,956
restricted share units to senior management as part of their
performance bonuses for the year ended December 31, 2024. Such
grants were made in the ordinary course, consistent with past
practice and properly disclosed via the System for Electronic
Disclosure by Insiders (SEDI). Alpayana was aware of these
issuances, and the timing thereof, at the time it made the Revised
Offer, however, such condition remains in the Revised Offer.
Alpayana was aware that the above noted
conditions could not be satisfied at the time it made the Revised
Offer. However, it has not elected to waive such conditions in
connection with the Revised Offer. As a result, tendering Common
Shares to the Revised Offer, in effect, constitutes the grant to
Alpayana of a unilateral and discretionary option to acquire all of
the Common Shares and there can be no certainty that Alpayana will
waive such conditions and take up and pay for the Common
Shares.
About Sierra Metals
Sierra Metals is a Canadian mining company focused on copper
production with additional base and precious metals by-product
credits at its Yauricocha Mine in Peru and Bolivar Mine in Mexico.
The Company is intent on safely increasing production volume and
growing mineral resources. Sierra Metals has recently had several
new key discoveries and still has many more exciting brownfield
exploration opportunities in Peru and Mexico that are within close
proximity to the existing mines. Additionally, the Company has
large land packages at each of its mines with several prospective
regional targets providing longer-term exploration upside and
mineral resource growth potential.
Forward-Looking Statements
This news release contains forward-looking information within
the meaning of Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking
information relates to future events or the anticipated performance
of Sierra Metals and reflect management's expectations or beliefs
regarding such future events and anticipated performance based on
an assumed set of economic conditions and courses of action. In
certain cases, statements that contain forward-looking information
can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects",
"is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts",
"intends", "anticipates", "believes" or variations of such words
and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results
"may", "could", "would", "might", or "will be taken", "occur" or
"be achieved" or the negative of these words or comparable
terminology. By its very nature forward-looking information
involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors
that may cause actual performance of Sierra Metals to be materially
different from any anticipated performance expressed or implied by
such forward-looking information.
Forward-looking information is subject to a variety of risks and
uncertainties, which could cause actual events or results to differ
from those reflected in the forward-looking information, including,
without limitation, the risks described under the heading "Risk
Factors" in the Company's annual information form dated March 26,
2025 for its fiscal year ended December 31, 2024 and other risks
identified in the Company's filings with Canadian securities
regulators, which are available at www.sedarplus.ca.
The risk factors referred to above are not an exhaustive list of
the factors that may affect any of the Company's forward-looking
information. Forward-looking information includes statements about
the future and is inherently uncertain, and the Company's actual
achievements or other future events or conditions may differ
materially from those reflected in the forward-looking information
due to a variety of risks, uncertainties and other factors. The
Company's statements containing forward-looking information are
based on the beliefs, expectations, and opinions of management on
the date the statements are made, and the Company does not assume
any obligation to update such forward-looking information if
circumstances or management's beliefs, expectations or opinions
should change, other than as required by applicable law. For the
reasons set forth above, one should not place undue reliance on
forward-looking information.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250506096865/en/
For further information regarding Sierra Metals, please visit
www.SierraMetals.com or contact:
Investor Relations Sierra Metals Inc. +1 (866) 721-7437
info@sierrametals.com
Media Relations John Vincic Principal Oakstrom Advisors
+1 (647) 402-6375 john@oakstrom.com
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