(Bloomberg) -- Newmont Mining Corp. got support for its $10 billion takeover of Goldcorp Inc. from an investor advisory group, as the company proposed its biggest dividend payout in more than two decades.

Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. said in a statement Monday that Goldcorp investors should vote for the deal at a meeting scheduled for April 4. Separately, Newmont announced it would offer an 88-cents-a-share special dividend if the deal is completed.

“The arrangement makes strategic sense,” ISS said. “It appears the company conducted an extensive and exhaustive sales process during which it managed to negotiate a transaction at a premium.”

Newmont announced plans in January to acquire Vancouver-based Goldcorp, which would secure its position as the world’s largest gold miner. The dividend payout would sweeten the merger for Newmont investors, some of whole have expressed opposition to the Goldcorp takeover. The biggest deal in gold mining history came just three months after rival Barrick Gold Corp. agreed to buy Randgold Resources Ltd. for about $5.4 billion.

Barrick subsequently launched a hostile takeover of Newmont that ended with the two miners entering a joint venture and combining their Nevada operations instead. Barrick withdrew its hostile offer at the same time.

Paulson & Co., the investment firm run by billionaire John Paulson, has come out against the deal, arguing Goldcorp would receive the benefits of the joint venture with Barrick for free and criticizing compensation Goldcorp executives would receive if the merger goes through. As a result, Paulson, who said his firm owns 14.2 million shares in Newmont, said he would like to see the price lowered by 23 percent.

Another large investor, VanEck, has said Paulson’s points are “valid.”

Investors didn’t know when the deal was signed about the “outrageous payouts” executives would receive, and it’s unfair that Goldcorp shareholders would benefit from a subsequent joint venture, Joe Foster, a portfolio manager at VanEck said in an interview Friday. VanEck hasn’t determined how it will vote on the deal, he said.

The combined company “stands to benefit” from the joint venture with Barrick, ISS said.

“While there appear to be some governance concerns related to the chairman’s retirement allowance increase, given the above factors and positive market reaction, on balance, shareholder approval of this resolution is warranted,” ISS said.

Newmont rose 0.7 percent to $34.73 at 9:34 a.m. in New York, while Goldcorp’s U.S. shares climbed 1 percent.

To contact the reporters on this story: Scott Deveau in New York at sdeveau2@bloomberg.net;Danielle Bochove in Toronto at dbochove1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Elizabeth Fournier at efournier5@bloomberg.net, ;Luzi Ann Javier at ljavier@bloomberg.net, Joe Richter

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