The complicated takeover of St Barbara (ASX:SBM) by Genesis Minerals (ASX:GMD) is underway with a successful $275 million share placement aimed at financing the whole transaction and early months of the merged company's operations in 2023. The merger process will now start, which will see St Barbara takeover Genesis (with Dacian Gold included) and a bunch of unwanted gold assets and stockmarket investments sold into a separate company. The placement was done at $1.20 a share (which was a small premium to the pre-issue price for Genesis of $1.195) and investors scrambled to get set. That enthusiasm saw Genesis shares leap to a day's high of $1.535 before settling back to end the session up 12.5% at $1.345. St Barbara shares had a similar experience, leaping to a day's high of 81.7 cents before closing at 74 cents for a day's gain of 13.8%.