White Industries wins battle

Press, 1 September 1980, Page 28

White Industries wins battle

PA Melbourne White Industries, Ltd, has given Endeavour Resources, Ltd, a six months option'over its 50 per cent interestun the Ashford Colliery in New South Wales, Endeavour’s chairman (Mr E. A. Webb) announced.

He said that the exercise price was SSM. Mr Webb said that the directors of Mareeba Mining, Ltd, (50 per cent-owned by White Industries).advised that they would let shareholders decide .at the next : annual meeting whether the company would join White in the option arrangement.Mareeba purchased' its 50 per cent interest in. the Ashford Colliery in May last year.

The Endeavour announcement came a day after the out-of-court settlement in which Alan Bond interests, acting through Endeavour, agreed to sell their White Industries shares, leaving the White board and friends in control of the coal mining and engineering group. The sale.price was $18.75 a share, totalling S77M. The agreement means the end of a protracted and acrimonious battle for control of White Industries.

The, sale represented a “substantial profit” for the Bond - owned company. The joint statement by White and Endveaour said that “the purchaser is an Australian resident individual and it is his intenton to'place the shares benefically acquired with

Australian long term • investors.. ‘

“The fluids for the purchase will be lent by friends of the White family, who shall hold a security interest in respect of the shares acquired, provided that any necessary Government approvals are first obtained.” A spokesman for White Industries refused to elaborate on the official statement other than to confirm that Mitsubishi Industries of Japan would jbe involved in the purchase i arrangements. Mitsubishi is i a coal customer of White and i had purchased shares on its I behalf during the take-over struggle. The Ashford Colliery has reserves of hard coking coal estimated at 3.5 M tonnes. The medium ash, low sulphur coal is especially suited to steel making. Open cut mining is carried out, and coal is sold to the North West County Council for the. Ashford power station.

White Industries’ major coal interests, and the main object of the take-over at-, tempt are the Ulan deposits in the upper Hunter Valley, owned in partnership with Mitsubishi.

White’s chairman (Mr Geoff White) announced last month that the Tohuko Electric Power Company of Japan had agreed to buy 5M tonnes of Ulan steaming coal. The deal was estimated as being worth SIBOM at today’s prices.