Peter Munk, the founder and chairman of Barrick Gold, told investors at the annual meeting on Wednesday that, notwithstanding the company's bid for copper miner Equinox, Barrick remains firmly committed to being the world's top gold miner. Barrick (ABX.TO) has seen its stock punished this week following a surprise C$7.3 billion ($7.65 billion) bid for Equinox Minerals (EQN.TO). Critics have slammed the deal as risky and argue it could harm the price-to-cash-flow multiple that investors attach to Barrick's stock. Barrick has lost $6 billion in market capitalization, or about 10 percent of its value, since announcing the Equinox deal on Monday. Its shares continued to trend lower even after it reported strong first-quarter results on Wednesday. "We would be foolish, suicidal and totally wrong to our heritage and to what we believe in, if we ever, ever, ever contemplate letting go for a single second of our primacy in the gold industry," said Munk, 83, who founded Barrick back in the early 1980s.
Shares of ABX traded higher by 0.2% or $0.1004/share to $50.2904. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $39.67 and as high as $55.74. On average, 8794760 shares of ABX exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 11049949.
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