Oppenheimers

"That, to me, was a very great promise. In the middle of this Consgold turmoil, which lasted almost a year, we made several million pounds on the transaction because, as we kept buying, the attendant publicity suddenly focused on Consgold as a takeover target. In fact, the Oppenheimers themselves then subsequently made a bid for more Consgold stock. The move on Consgold promised to give Munk much-needed mines, which “I would get later on by buying Goldstrike, but at that time I needed the next step.” A week after Munk met with Agnew, Bill Birchall received word that Hill Samuel was interested in buying all or any part of Barrick’s 5-percent shareholdings in Consgold. That useful information was of great comfort to Peter Munk, whose Consgold play had driven the market value of Barrick’s 4.9-percent holding up by over $10 million and rising. That would mean a tidy profit on an investment made but a few months earlier."

"A stand-alone takeover bid would require some £1.8 billion, and as Munk says: With a bid of that magnitude a mistake would be fatal, and I could not take a chance. At the last minute, we had advances from the Oppenheimers through third parties for me to go to South Africa and talk. I was afraid to compromise our legal position and didn’t accept. And by that time I had promised Rudolf Agnew that I would not engage in a dialogue with the Oppenheimers."