C.R.A. and H. Smith bid for C.A.I.L.

Press, 2 August 1977, Page 25

C.R.A. and H. Smith bid for C.A.I.L.

NZPA Sydney Howard f'mith, Ltd, and Conzinc Riotinto of Australia, Ltd, have announced a take-over offer for all the issued shares in Coal and Allied Industries, Ltd, (C.A.LL.) not held by Howard Smith. The offer, which came in I a joint announcement to ! Australian Stock Exchanges,, ■ puts a theoretical value on I C.A.LL. of sAust 74M. '• The offer is 330 c cash for each outstanding C.A.LL. share, or one C.R.A. share and 400 c cash for every two C.A.LL. shares. The offer terms for the outstanding preference shares is 50c cash. C.A.LL. has an issued ' capital of 22,426.044 100 c ordinary shares, and of this | Howard Smith owns 38 per cent.

Of the 1,857,180 7 per cent cumulative preference shares on issue by C.A.1.L., Howard Smith owns 69.7 per cent.

The cash offer puts a value on the outstanding shares of $45.8M, while the cash and shares of.’er is worth just over $ .6M. A condition of the offer is a 90 per cent acceptance,; and both companies say that if successful, they will hold the C.A.LL. shares on a 50-j 50 basis. C.A.LL. is one of the* major coal miners in New i South Wales, working predominantly in the New- I castle-Hunter Valley coal | fields. For C.R.A. it will be the first entty into the producing side of the coal industry. Up till now C.R.A. has been involved in a number of coal exploration groups, most notably in Queensland in the Hail Creek project with Australian Associated Resources. C.R.A. has to make a deci-

sion by August 15 on whether to take up sn additional stake in Hail Creek which will raise its interest from 17 to 26 per cent.