UEC's president and CEO Amir Adnani noted that the deal marks the company's second merger and acquisition transaction in the past year, following the acquisition of Uranium One Americas.
"The U1A transaction doubled UEC's processing capacity, In-Situ Recovery resources and permitted projects in the United States, while the UEX transaction doubles the size of our measured and indicated uranium resources," Adnani said.
UEC has no debt, over US$180 million of cash and liquid assets, including physical uranium, which positions the company well to capitalize on the growing interest in uranium, he said.
"There is an emerging trend by Western utilities to secure supplies from uranium projects in politically stable and proven jurisdictions, this is a strong fit with UEC's permitted, and production-ready US ISR projects and extensive growth pipeline in Canada," he said.
UEC acquired all issued and outstanding shares of UEX by paying 0.09 UEC shares for each UEX share held, which implied a consideration of about C$0.497 (US$0.38) per UEX share. The company beat out a competing bid by Denison Mines along the way.
"The competing interest for UEX from other industry participants further validates the significant upside and strategic rationale we identified in UEX's portfolio of high-grade projects in the world-class Athabasca Basin of Saskatchewan," Adnani said.
Red Cloud Securities said 16 August that the offer fell short of its C$0.60 target for UEX and holds the view that the assets could have garnered more given potential synergies with Denison's assets.
The deal sees UEC gaining 29 projects with 147.8 million pounds in attributable U3O8 resources, including five advanced stage assets and joint ventures with established partners such as Cameco, Denison, and Orano Canada, Red Cloud previously noted.
UEC was last seen trading at US$3.38 with a market capitalisation of $1.01 billion.
