TORONTO (CP) -- Goldcorp Inc. [TSX:G; NYSE:GG] founder and dissenting shareholder Rob McEwen is looking to sell his shares in the company after failing to force a shareholder vote in a merger between Goldcorp and Glamis.
''At some point I believe there's going to be a better place to put my money,'' he said in an interview Monday.
''I don't have a timetable [but] I will move to greener pastures with those funds.''
McEwen, who holds a 1.5% stake in Goldcorp, will look to re-invest in the gold sector - despite being disappointed with corporate governance groups and regulators over what he considers a failure to protect shareholder rights.
''I like price leverage, I think there's a lot of room there, but also, [I'll] keep watching for the companies that respect shareholder rights,'' he said.
Last month, McEwen launched his fight against his former company and its CEO Ian Telfer, accusing Goldcorp of disregarding shareholders by denying them a vote in the US$8.6-billion acquisition, even though Glamis shareholders got one.
He has said the deal was too expensive and would cause too much share dilution - an opinion that, he said, was shared by shareholders holding 28 million Goldcorp shares.
The Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, which holds about 2.3 million Goldcorp shares, also complained to the company about the lack of a shareholder vote on the deal.
Still, the merger transaction was finalized after the Ontario Divisional Court of Appeal denied McEwen's request for a compliance order against Goldcorp to hold a shareholders' vote on the Glamis deal late Friday.
Goldcorp's CEO has repeatedly stated that McEwen was virtually the only shareholder who wanted a vote, a point he reasserted after his victory.
''He had a very, very tiny percentage of our shareholders supporting him; the vast majority of our shareholders weren't interested in a vote and didn't want to stop this deal, so that just became more and more obvious as Rob went along,'' Telfer said in an interview from Vancouver.
''Our shareholders are very happy; I'm getting e-mails from all over the world saying: ''Congratulations, Let's go.''
The Goldcorp-Glamis deal comes on the heels of frenzied consolidation in the gold industry, with Toronto miner Kinross Gold Ltd. [TSX:K; NYSE:KGC] and Vancouver's Bema Gold Corp. [TSX:BGO; NYSE:BGO] becoming the latest companies to join the trend. They announced their own US$3.1-billion merger on Monday.
Telfer said he did not expect the Kinross-Bema deal to have any immediate impact on Goldcorp, whose own rationale for the deal was an interest in gaining reserves and resources.
Glamis adds 15.7 million proven and probable ounces of gold reserves to the new company, as well as more than 617 million ounces of proven and probable silver reserves. That includes 575 million at its undeveloped Penasquito property in Mexico, where it hopes to achieve initial mine start-up in late 2008 and full production by late 2009.
''We thought from the beginning it would be good for both companies to get together and we still feel that,'' he said.
McEwen, for his part, said he'll be looking to invest in areas where large discoveries have been made in the past, and those in which an investor can get a large interest in the company - the criteria he generally uses when looking for investments in minerals.
He will also continue to focus on U.S. Gold Corp [TSX:UXG] - a small Denver-area company in which he held a stake of about 33% as of March - as well as ''a number of other junior exploration companies that I'd be a 20 to 30% shareholder of.''
While he conceded defeat in the battle against Goldcorp, he promised to continue to advocate for the rights of shareholder when appropriate, calling on corporate governance groups ''that profess to be looking out for the shareholders to stand up and show what they're made of.''
On the TSX Monday, Goldcorp shares closed down 89 cents at C$29.45, while Glamis stock fell C$1.46 to $49.50.
(c) The Canadian Press 2006
