IEL will challenge NBH share ruling

Press, 27 February 1986, Page 23

IEL will challenge NBH share ruling

NZPA " Sydney Industrial Equity, Ltd, will appeal a Victorian Supreme Court ruling that a S7OM parcel of North Broken Hill Holdings, Ltd, shares claimed by lEL should be sold by the National Companies and Securities Commission.

The chairman of lEL, Mr Ron Brierley, has confirmed that lEL will appeal the decision, which he described as the “most nonsensical in Australia’s corporate history.” Mr Brierley said there was too much Government intervention in market take-overs and the whole NBH episode was a “classic example” of just what can happen with

such intervention. ' “We have had all sorts of people inserting all sorts of provisions in the Companies Code,” he said.

“The implication of the whole decision and the cavalier seizure of private property and absurdly disproportionate aspects of the decision will have serious implications for Australian capital markets."

Mr Brierley said the, decision was also a blow to NBH shareholders and created further “nuisance and irritation” for lEL’s take-over bid for NBH.

The Victorian Supreme Court ruled that the shares should be sold by

the NCSC within six months, with proceeds going to the Victorian Treasury under Section 462 of the Companies Code. Section 462 of the code allows for unclaimed lottery funds and other disputed funds to be held by the Government pending proof by an applicant that it has a legal claim on them, the spokesman said.

But Mr Justice Fullagar granted a stay of implementation of the order until the next motion day of the Full Court to enable counsel for an lEL associate, Crosley, Ltd, to seek a further stay, pending an appeal.