Teck Cominco Ltd. chief executive officer Don Lindsay says he expects his company's bid for Inco Ltd. will succeed, but there is still time for further developments before the offer closes next week.
“If nothing changes between now and Wednesday we think it will be successful,” he told reporters after a speech in Melbourne, according to a report from Reuters news service. “Certainly that is what the market says right now, but anything can happen here.”
Teck has made a $19.6-billion cash and share offer for Inco, in competition with a rival bid from Phelps Dodge Corp. The Teck bid expires August 16.
In a regulatory filing on Monday, Inco said it was willing to open negotiations to see if Teck would boost its takeover bid. However, Inco's board has recommended that shareholders tender to the Phelps offer, the filing said.
On Tuesday Teck said it has no intention of negotiating any new deal, and that its offer is “clearly superior the to highly conditional Phelps Dodge offer.”
The Teck offer includes almost twice as much cash as the Phelps bid, which still needs regulatory and shareholder approval.
There will not likely be other offers for Inco forthcoming, Mr. Lindsay told reporters in Melbourne. “People have speculated that others were coming, but the fact that Inco was willing to have discussions with us gave an indication that maybe that is not the case,” he said.
At a mining conference earlier this week in Australia, Mr. Lindsay said Teck Cominco has a list of takeover targets that it would consider if its bid for Inco is not successful .
