MINING group Endeavour yesterday called off attempts to merge with London-listed miner Centamin, after the latter said it would not extend the deadline for the Canadian corporation to make an offer.

Shares in Centamin fell nearly seven per cent to 118.35p.

The two firms have been in talks since early December, when Endeavour went public with an £1.47bn all-share takeover.

After wrangling about due diligence deadlines for much of the rest of the month, Endeavour has now decided to bring an end to its pursuit, which it has been conducting since October 2018.

The Canadian mining giant's chief executive Sebastien de Montessus said in a statement: "We remain convinced about the strategic rationale of combining Endeavour and Centamin to create a diversified gold producer with a high-quality portfolio of assets.

"The quality of information received during the accelerated due diligence process has been insufficient to allow us to be confident that proceeding with a firm offer would have been in the best interests of Endeavour shareholders," he added.

Centamin issued a statement saying that Endeavour's offer "materially undervalued" the firm.

Jim Rutherford, the firm's deputy chairman, said: "After a period of constructive engagement, Centamin and Endeavour have not reached agreement on value and have therefore terminated discussions.

"We are highly confident in our growth strategy, which includes but is not limited to value-accretive diversification."

In last week's trading update, Centamin said that the fourth quarter saw a 50 per cent rise in production at the Sukari mine, making it one of the best quarter's in Centamin's history.

The firm also reaffirmed its guidance for 2020.

(c) 2020 City A.M., source Newspaper