Xstrata said on November 26 that it would declare its takeover offer for Jubilee unconditional if it got acceptances accounting for more than half of the shares by December 6.
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Mining group Xstrata Plc <XTA.L> has extended its A$3.1 billion ($2.70 billion) bid until January 31 for Australia's fifth-largest nickel producer Jubilee Mines NL <JBM.AX> after it failed to get 50 percent of shares.
Xstrata said on November 26 that it would declare its takeover offer for Jubilee unconditional if it got acceptances accounting for more than half of the shares by December 6.
But its nickel unit only received 36.1 percent of Jubilee's total issued shares, a statement said on Friday.
"Since the announcement of the takeover on October 29, 2007, there have been no indications that another bid may emerge," Xstrata said.
!ADVERTISEMENT!Jubilee continues to support the offer and recommends that shareholders accept it, Jubilee's Executive Chairman Kerry Harmanis said.
At A$23 a share, Xstrata offered a 35 percent premium to Jubilee's shares before the offer was announced. Jubilee shares closed on Friday down 0.2 percent at A$22.90.
Jubilee mines around 12,000 tons of nickel a year, which is less than 1 percent of global output, from its Cosmos nickel mine in Western Australia, and plans to develop a second project, taking annual output to 22,000 tons a year in the next three or four years.
Xstrata's nickel division, headquartered in Toronto, is the world's fourth largest, with yearly output of more than 110,000 tons of refined nickel.
(Reporting by Eric Onstad, editing by Will Waterman)
