New York-listed Uranium Energy Corp (UEC) has reached an agreement to buy Toronto-listed uranium firm UEX Corp, underscoring ongoing merger activity in North America.

Under the terms of the agreement, each holder of the common shares of UEX will receive 0.0831 of one UEC share in exchange for each UEX share.

This share exchange ratio implies consideration of approximately C$0.43⁾ per UEX Share and a premium of approximately 50% based on the closing price of UEX's shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange on June 10, 2022.

"The strategic acquisition of UEX will grow our diversified portfolio in the politically stable and mining friendly jurisdiction of Canada," said UEC chief executive Amir Adnai.

It also marks the largest North American M&A transaction in the uranium sector following the U1A acquisition by UEC in 2021.

UEX brings various interests in 29 projects, five of which are fairly advanced, and 6six of which alone contain over 146Mlb U3O8.

UEC already controls the largest portfolio of near-term production uranium resources in the US, and the acquisition would add a portfolio of mid to longer term development assets in Canada.

"Additionally, the five advanced resource stage projects are already in strong joint-venture partnerships with established uranium miners, allowing UEC to remain operationally focused in the US while benefiting from a new development pipeline with significant exploration potential in Canada," said analysts at Haywood Securities.

"That said, the deal comes as a bit of a surprise from a strategic perspective, as UEC has long been highly focused on near-term production from US sources," it added.

US and Canadian officials have called for greater uranium and nuclear cooperation between the two countries in aan attempt to reduce US imports of uranium from Russia.