FMC gets nod for reorganization

Shareholders of FMC Gold (FGL-N) have approved the company’s reincorporation into Meridian Gold.

The company has about 73.5 million shares outstanding.

The transaction was completed in early August, when Meridian Gold was reincorporated into a Canadian company through an inactive corporate entity, owned by FMC Gold, called Meridian Minerals. FMC Gold acquired Meridian when it bought the Beartrack deposit in Idaho. The resulting entity retained the name Meridian Gold, and parent company FMC Corp.’s 80% interest was then converted into an 80% stake in Meridian.

FMC Corp. says it will liquidate 90% of its interest (representing 53.5 million shares) to a syndicate of buyers led by CIBC Wood Gundy and Nesbitt Burns. The shares were sold for $5 each, totalling about $267 million in gross proceeds.

The first payment of the instalment receipts was due at the end of July; the second is due one year later.

The syndicate also has a 30-day option, which began July 23, to buy the remaining 10% of Meridian from FMC Corp. (some 5.3 million shares).

Shares of Meridian Gold are now listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol MDG, and the company has been conditionally approved for a listing on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol MNG.

Meridian will have a registered office in Vancouver and an executive office in Reno, Nev. In addition to operating the Beartrack mine, the company owns a 30% interest in the Jerritt Canyon gold mine in Nevada. Additional assests include the Rossi gold property in that state’s Carlin trend and the Penon gold project in Chile.