Endeavour Mining gets extension from Centamin to improve offer

(Reuters) - Centamin Plc <CEY.L> on Monday won approval to give its Canadian suitor Endeavour Mining <EDV.TO> more time to make a firm takeover offer, as shareholder pressure mounted on the London-listed gold miner to engage in talks.

The new "put up or shut up" deadline for Endeavour to make an offer or walk away has been set for Jan. 14 by the UK takeover panel on Centamin's request.

Endeavour had urged Centamin to seek an extension till Jan. 31, saying the original Dec. 31 deadline did not give it sufficient time to study Centamin's assets.

VanEck International Investors, which has the third-biggest stake in Endeavour and the second-biggest in Centamin, had earlier urged Centamin to seek extension on the takeover offer date.

Endeavour, which focuses on West Africa, is seeking to gain control of Centamin assets including the Sukari mine and Cleopatra project in Egypt, as well as its exploration projects in parts of West Africa.

Centamin earlier this month rejected a 1.47 billion pound all-stock takeover proposal from Endeavour, saying it did not offer enough value to Centamin shareholders.

(Reporting by Shariq Khan in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)