"No $30M gift for Ravensdown”

Press, 26 November 1977, Page 18

"No $30M gift for Ravensdown”

The directors of Kempthorne Prosser and Company, Ltd, are astonished, they said yesterday, at the reported remarks of Mr P. H. Elworthy of Ravensdown Fertiliser Company that K.P. “should agree to give its fertiliser plants to Ravensdown and concentrate on building up its interests in pharmaceuticals.”

They said that they were no unaware of the value of gratuitous advice and it could not accept Mr Elworthy’s alleged remarks as being in any other category. “The board wishes to point out again that up to this date it still has not received any written proposals from Ravensdown. Any such proposals are awaited with interest,” they said.

“Meanwhile Mr Elworthy might ponder the fact that a recent valuation of Kempthome’s fertiliser assets (including the Dominion Company) indicates a value in excess of S3OM.

“To suggest that such assets might be ‘given’ to Ravensdown is tile height of absurdity. “The Kempthorne board earnestly hopes that when it meets the representatives of Ravensdown and Brierley Investments on November 30 they will have some wellreasoned and commercially viable propositions to place before it. No others can be considered and shareholders may rest assured that none of their assets will be ‘given away’.”