M&A WATCH- Endeavour to make new offer for Centamin within days, sources say: Canada’s Endeavour Mining is set to lodge in “a few days” a new, higher offer to acquire Egypt-focused Centamin, Al Mal reported, citing sources close to the matter. There’s also a possibility that we could be seeing a rival offer from another “major gold company.”

We already know that Endeavour’s last chance is Tuesday: Centamin received approval from a UK regulator late last month to give Endeavour an extension for a “put up or shut up” deadline that was triggered when Endeavour made an initial takeover offer, which Centamin had rejected. The new deadline is now Tuesday. The deadline extension came amid mounting pressure from major shareholders in both companies, including VanEck International Investors and US-based BlackRock. Naguib Sawiris’ La Mancha, the largest shareholder in Endeavour, has also urged Centamin to make the merger work.

This all comes as Centamin’s operations in Egypt are doing well: The London-listed gold miner reported a 51% y-o-y increase in 4Q2019 production at its Sukari gold mine in Egypt during 4Q2019, according to a press release. Centamin produced 148,387 ounces of gold from the mine during the quarter, marking the strongest performance since the end of 2017.