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TORONTO, April 24 (Reuters) – Teck Resources Ltd (TECKb.TO), which is trying to fend off an unsolicited $22.5 billion takeover offer from Glencore Plc (GLEN.L), should remain headquartered in Canada and help the country expand its critical minerals industry, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said on Monday.
The comments from Freeland, who is also Canada’s deputy prime minister, are the clearest indication to date that Ottawa is watching closely the increasingly acrimonious takeover battle between Vancouver-based miner Teck and Switzerland’s Glencore.
The bid is the latest in a mounting wave of mining industry buyout offers fueled by growing demand for copper and other metals critical to the green energy transition.
“We need companies like Teck here in Canada, companies with a strong commitment to Canada,” Freeland wrote in a letter to the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade that was seen by Reuters. Freeland was responding to concerns from the board about Teck’s future in Canada in the wake of Glencore’s unsolicited bid.
Teck’s shareholders must respond by Monday on a separate plan from Teck to split its coal and metals businesses, with results released on Wednesday. Glencore’s takeover attempt likely would be scuttled if Teck’s shareholders support the split.
Representatives for Teck and Glencore were not immediately available to comment.
Reporting by Divya Rajagopal and Steve Scherer; editing by Ernest Scheyder
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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