Australian miner OZ Minerals will stick with a plan to sell most of its assets to China's Minmetals and reject a last-minute proposal that would have scuppered the deal, a report said Monday.
Debt-laden OZ Minerals had declined an unsolicited 1.2 billion US dollar refinancing proposal from Royal Bank of Canada and RFC Group, the Australian newspaper reported.
OZ's board reportedly received the alternative offer on Friday but decided it did not trump the Minmetals proposal, which has already been approved by the Australian government and will go to a shareholder vote on Thursday.
Canberra approved Minmetals' 850 million US dollar offer after the Chinese firm adjusted it to exclude OZ's flagship Prominent Hill mine because it was located near a military rocket testing range in South Australia.
Had the deal failed, it would have been the second Chinese offer related to Australia's resources sector to have soured in less than a week, after Rio Tinto last Friday dumped a planned tie-up with Chinalco.
Rio rejected Chinalco's 19.5 billion US dollar offer for an improved stake in the mining giant, saying improved commodity prices meant a rights issue and a joint venture with former rival BHP Billiton were more appealing.
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