Pastoral Holdings will proceed

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33445, 29 January 1974, Page 22

Pastoral Holdings will proceed

(New Zealand Press Association)

New Zealand Pastoral Holdings, Ltd, will proceed with its take-over bid for Agricultural Industries of New Zealand, Ltd, subject to an examination of the contracts and obligations entered into by Agricultural industries since its incorporation.

The chairman of Pastoral Holdings (Mr D. N. R. Webb) said in his announcement that this safeguard was written into the original take-over offer.

“A committee of the board will complete the final examination before January 31, I when the take-over offer has to be declared unconditional,” he said.

Mr Webb added that his company was confident it would obtain enough acceptances to declare the offer unconditional. Mr Webb said that many decisions of detail were still to be taken, including the reconstruction of the board of Agricultural Industries. Although Messrs D. S. M. Barnett and S. Holmes remained opposed to the take-over offer, they had agreed to work with the I Pastoral Holdings board “in the enlarged field” if the 'offer was completed.

It was proposed, said Mr Webb, that Mr Barnett would be one of the appointees to the Agricultural Industries board. Messrs Barnett and Holmes were elected to the Pastoral Holdings directorate at the annual meeting last year, when they unseated two sitting directors. They have been trying to rally shareholders’ support to block the take-over of Agricultural Industries.