Barrick shareholders set to approve Randgold acquisition: sources

TORONTO (Reuters) - Barrick Gold shareholders have voted overwhelmingly in favor of the Canadian miner's $6.1 billion acquisition of Africa-focused Randgold Resources , three people familiar with the preliminary vote count told Reuters on Friday. Around 99 percent of the votes tendered so far by Barrick investors are in support of the all-stock, no premium deal announced in September, two of the people said, surpassing the simple majority required to seal the deal. The vast majority of institutional investors have cast their votes ahead of the remainder of Barrick shareholders who are set to vote on the transaction on Monday, the people said, declining to be identified as the information is not public. Randgold has also got adequate shareholder support ahead of its Nov. 7 meeting, one of the sources said, though the level of approval was unclear. London-listed Randgold requires the support of 75 percent of the shares voted by a majority of its shareholders. Barrick declined to comment. Randgold did not immediately respond to a request for comment. (Reporting by John Tilak, Susan Taylor, additional reporting by Zandile Shabalala; editing by Grant McCool)