Zacks.com Announces That Ed Bugos Highlights the Following Stocks: Agnico-Eagle Mines, Randgold, and IAMgold.

Business Editors

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 22, 2004

Gold stocks can fluctuate as wildly as any other issue in the market. But Ed Bugos can help make sense of the space and get you on the yellow brick road to profit with his market and stock analysis. Read about Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd. (NYSE:AEM), Randgold (NASDAQ:GOLD), and IAMgold (AMEX:IAG). Click here for the full story exclusively on Zacks.com: http://at.zacks.com/?id=84

Here are the highlights from the Featured Expert column:

There might be a buying opportunity in Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd. (NYSE:AEM) if the stock gets beat up too badly. Let Ed Bugos make one cautionary comment, however. After the initial news, management kept the market's confidence that it could contain operating costs, and get production back on track quickly. It didn't happen, at least not last year as was expected. Bugos sold his position at US$12 in October when they finally admitted that it would take longer, and he felt that it would be a better buy below US$10. However, it did not bypass Bugos' attention that the stock underperformed its peers during most of the last half of the year, particularly in September when it fell while most gold stocks were actually strong, and which he observed at the time.

The gist of it is that Bugos is not sure what the stock will do, but he would consider buying a position anywhere near US$10, rather than "below" that level, as a result of the implication of recent activity in the tape - and going on the hypothesis that he buys the stocks that hold up best during a correction.

Whatever is going on, there is probably value in the stock around those levels, not that it'll necessarily fall to there in coming days on this news.

Randgold and IAMgold Merger

Speculation: A Comparison

Mineweb reported that Randgold (NASDAQ:GOLD) confirmed it had been talking with IAMgold (AMEX:IAG) about a possible merger, but that nothing had been decided and nothing was imminent. Having said that, Bugos thinks they would make a good fit. Bugos is assuming an all share exchange at a ratio of about 3.1 IAMgold shares for every 1 Randgold share based on mainly two factors: 1) current share prices, which must be accounting for the merger speculation to some extent, and 2) the ratio between certain intrinsic valuations per share.

The new company, under the proposed exchange ratio, would have either 78 million shares outstanding or 240 million shares depending on whether Randgold issues the shares or IAMgold does. For the purpose of this example Bugos is assuming Randgold is the issuer, though it doesn't matter. The numbers will measure up the same so long as the exchange ratio remains the same.

Randgold shareholders could benefit from a merger in the following ways:

-- Increased mine life

-- Greater institutional exposure, liquidity, and wider general

audience

-- A foothold in Ghana and more mine diversity, including

exploration potential in the Americas

-- Lower hedge burden relative to production

-- More reserves (proven and probable)

IAMgold shareholders could benefit from:

-- More resources (measured and indicated), hence growth

potential

-- Higher grades

-- Lower average operating costs

-- Stronger share "structure"

-- Moves closer to operatorship status

The bottom line is that both companies could see fuller share valuations arising from these synergies, plus others. That's what Bugos likes most. The combined entity would have almost US$300 million in cash, a healthy balance sheet (only about US$35 million in long term debt), annual production of almost 900,000 ounces by 2006, and 6 million ounces of proven and probable reserves.

Get much more of Ed Bugos' information on the above-mentioned companies by clicking: http://at.zacks.com/?id=85

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