Meat bid vetoed

Press, 4 May 1981, Page 26

Meat bid vetoed

PA Auckland The bid by Allied Farmers Co-operative, Ltd, to take over R. and W. Hellaby, Ltd, has been stymied by the Examiner of Commercial Practices. The deputy examiner (Mr R. M. Oram) said on Friday night that the initial decision, which had been telephoned to both parties and the stock exchange, was that the Allied bid could not be approved. The Examiner’s powers allow him only to approve or apply conditions to a bid. Mr Oram said that he had called for further submissions before referring the matter to the Commerce Commission. He said Allied Farmers now had 10 days in

which to decide if it would go ahead with the bid. If the company decided ta proceed, a full inquiry would be conducted and a report) furnished to the Commission, which was then required ta call a hearing. ( The chairman of Allied Farmers (Mr D. L. Hazard) said that he would not com-, ment until he had seen thq text of the Examiner's decision. His advisory board would meet on Monday tq discuss the situation, he said, i The managing director and deputy chairman of Hellaby'si (Mr F. R. A. Hellaby) said that he was pleased that the Examiner had upheld thq company view that the bid was not in the public inter-, est. ■