The BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP) share price is trading in the red on Wednesday, slipping around 1% from the open.
BHP shares may well be struggling amid fresh news out of Andrew "Twiggy" Forrest's Wyloo Metals Pty Ltd camp on Wednesday, that it has upped the stakes in its bid to acquire Canadian nickel miner Noront Resources Ltd.
Let's investigate further.
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What is the situation?
Recall that BHP had previously made a C55 cents (A60 cents) per share offer to acquire Noront, located in Canada's "ring of fire" prospecting area in July. This offer has already gained support from Nordont's board.
On Monday, Wyloo Metals stepped in and has offered to acquire Noront for C70 cents (A76 cents) per share in an all-cash offering. As such Wyloo's offer is a 27% premium on top of BHP's bid.
Wyloo Metals is already a 37.5% stakeholder in Nordont, meaning its upsized offer may have more weight behind it. Wyloo does not intend to support the BHP offer.
Should the transaction tilt in favour of Wyloo, Forrest would become Noront's chairperson.
BHP has pushed back, stating that it did not need Wyloo's support. It stated that Forrest's company has only made a proposal, whereas the "BHP offer is the only offer that has been made to shareholders", today's Australian Financial Review reports.
Noront's share price has jumped to C75 cents (A81 cents) at the time of writing, having gained around 25% on the day of Wyloo's offer.
The Canadian nickel miner has also weighed in, confirming that BHP is the only offer on the table, whereas Wyloo's angle is a "non-binding proposal".
BHP share price snapshot
The BHP share price is down 0.92% at $45.19 at the time of writing.
Shares in the mining giant have climbed around 6% this year to date and gained just over 20% over the past 12 months.
Both of these results have lagged the S&P/ASX 200 index (ASX: XJO)'s gain of around 25% over the past year.
