VANCOUVER (CP) -- Imperial Metals Corp. [TSX:III] raised its friendly takeover bid for BcMetals Corp. [TSXv:C] to C$1.30 per share on Friday, topping the latest unsolicited offer from Taseko Mines Ltd. [TSX:TKO] by a nickel per share. Shortly thereafter, Taseko Mines increased its offer to C$1.40 per share for the junior metal company.
Imperial Metals chief financial officer Andre Deepwell said BcMetal's Red Chris, a copper-gold project in northwestern B.C., is what makes the company so desirable.
''There aren't that many projects in this category that are available,'' Deepwell said in an interview.
He said the project represents near-term production for the company within the next five years.
Russ Hallbauer, Taseko's president and CEO, said in a statement: "This new bid price represents a 7.7% premium over Imperial Metals Corp.'s last offer and is indicative of our continuing determination to acquire BcMetals."
Imperial Metals said Friday the all-cash bid through subsidiary CAT-Gold Corp. remains open until Feb. 9, valuing BcMetals at just under C$50 million. Taseko's offer was also extended until midnight on Feb. 7.
The price of CAT-Gold's all-cash offer to purchase the outstanding out-of-the-money securities of BcMetals remained unchanged, at two cents per out-of-the-money security.
Imperial has a support agreement with BcMetals enabling it to match any competing offer, and holds 22% of the outstanding equity of BcMetals, while Taseko owns about 5%.
Taseko increased its bid for BcMetals to C$48 million Jan. 18, topping a previously sweetened offer by Imperial Metals.
If BcMetals recommends any offer other than Imperial's, it must pay a break fee of C$1.8 million and repay C$2 million borrowed from Imperial.
The BcMetals board said Friday it was affirming its recommendation that shareholders tender to the Imperial Metals bid.
BcMetals chief executive Ian Smith said it was the superior offer.
''Imperial was the one that came to us with a superior offer and we signed an agreement with them and that's the basis for our recommendation,'' Smith said.
Calls to Taseko seeking comment were not immediately returned.
BcMetals chief executive Ian Smith said the company was waiting for official word of the higher bid by Taseko before making any further decisions.
''We won't get that until Monday, all we have is the press release and we don't react on press releases,'' Smith said.Imperial Metals holds the Mount Polley mine northeast of Williams Lake, B.C., and a 50% stake in the Huckleberry Mine in west-central B.C.
The company made its first offer of BcMetals in September with a hostile bid of C$35.6 million cash offer for the 97% of junior miner BcMetals it didn't already own.
BcMetals shares were up two cents at C$1.30 Friday on the TSX Venture Exchange, while Imperial Metals was off 19 cents to C$10.90 on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Taseko was up four cents at C$3.04.
Taseko owns the Gibraltar copper-molybdenum mine, the Prosperity gold-copper project and the Harmony gold deposit, all in British Columbia
(c) The Canadian Press 2007
