What happened? Boliden announced the acquisition of the Neves-Corvo and Zinkgruvan mines from Lundin (NC) for an upfront cash consideration of $ 1.3bn and contingent payments up to $ 150m. The deal is expected to close in 1H25. BNPP Exane View: Ultimately, this deal was not a surprise, as we have previously written, as Boliden has been tied to these two assets for several months (Dagens Industri article, September 2024). The valuation is in-line with Visible Alpha consensus and will be financed by a bridge loan which is expected to be refinanced through a share issuance in the amount of half the bridge loan and the remainder in medium and long-term debt. The share issuance (equivalent to 9% of current market cap) is expected to be completed in 1H25 and will require authorisation from a general meeting. Post the deal, zinc and copper concentrate production will increase from 35% to 70% zinc smelting capacity and 30% to 40% of copper smelting capacity, per Boliden estimates. Metal production subsequently increases by 95% for zinc and 43% for copper. Boliden expects an EBITDA contribution from the mines of $ 300-350m per annum over the next five years. From a gearing perspective, Boliden estimates the ratio to be 30% post the completion of the transaction, above the 20% target level but anticipates bringing the level back down towards the target level within three years. Neves-Corvo is an underground zinc-copper-lead-silver mine in Portugal and produced 108kt of zinc and 34kt of copper in 2023, generating $ 91m of EBITDA. It is on the 75th percentile of the cash cost curve for both copper and zinc. Zinkgruvan is an underground zinc-copper-lead-silver mine in Sweden and produced 76kt of zinc and 4kt of copper in 2023, generating $ 104m of EBITDA. It''s position on the cash cost curve is estimated to be the middle of the second quartile for zinc.