Amcol Accepts Imerys' Sweetened Offer

(RTTNews) - Specialty minerals company Amcol International Corp. (ACO) said Wednesday it has accepted a sweetened merger offer from French mineral producer Imerys S.A., whereby Amcol shareholders will receive $42.75 per share in cash, an increase of $1.75 per share, for each share of Amcol stock they own. The deal is valued at about $1.61 billion, including AMCOL's net debt.

The $42.75 per share offer represents an about 24.5% premium to the volume weighted average closing price of Amcol's common stock over the last 30 trading days through February 11, the day prior to the announcement of the original deal.

Pursuant to the amended merger deal, Imerys has agreed to increase its tender offer for 100% of Amcol's outstanding shares to $42.75 per share in cash.

Imerys' tender offer remains subject to customary conditions.

The deal is not subject to any financing condition and is expected to close in the first half of 2014. The Amcol board unanimously recommends that shareholders tender their shares into Imerys' tender offer.

Earlier this month Imerys agreed to pay $41 per share for Hoffman Estates, Illinois-based Amcol. But that was countered by a rival bid for Amcol from Minerals Technologies that made an offer of $42 per share and sweetened that to 42.50 per share.

Amcol said it compared Imery's new offer with the proposal from Minerals Technologies and determined that the latter's offer is not superior.