Equiticorp, JEDI buy into Yates

Press, 23 February 1985, Page 22

Equiticorp, JEDI buy into Yates

PA Wellington Equiticorp Holdings, Lid, and JEDI Corporation, Ltd, have arranged to acquire an aggregate of 38 per cent of the capital of Yates Corporation, Ltd. JEDI has completed unconditional agreements to obtain a number of parcels of shares covering 18 per cent of Yates capital, and Equiticorp has entered into a conditional agreement with Elders IXL, Ltd, of Australia, to buy the 20 per cent of Yates that it holds. The agreement with Elders is subject to Yates shareholders’ approval of the sale of the pastoral and finance interests to Elders and to Overseas Investment Commission and other consents, all of which are expected to completed by the end of March. The Overseas Investment Commission stipulated that Elders IXL should divest itself of its Yates shareholding as a condition of approval for Elders to buy the Yates pastoral and finance operations: Allied Farmers Co-operative, of

Auckland, Hodder and Tolley, of Palmerston North, J. E. Watson and Company, Invercargill, and Yates Finance, Ltd. The announcment by the Yates board on February 20 of proposals to be put to shareholders to make a capital distribution of 50c per share, with ordinary interim dividend of 5c per share would, if apporoved, result in an early return on the proposed JEDI/Equiticorp investment of more than S7M. JEDI’s managing director, Mr John Tapper, said that the investment in Yates was a major step in JEDI’s programme of building an investment portfolio with good growth potential. “The sale of the Yates pastoral and finance operations to Elders, which will yield SBOM in cash, places the company in an ideal position to capitalise on its ongoing business in the key New Zealand economic sectors of agriculture, horticulture and exports,” he said. Mr Grant Adams, deputy chairman of Equiticorp, said the investment of more than S3SM by JEDI and Equiticorp demonstrated both parties’ confidence in the future of the Yates Group and commitment to its development. The financing of the purchases was already in place.