Court halts Bell offer for BHP

Press, 23 April 1986, Page 40

Court halts Bell offer for BHP

NZPA Perth Bell Resources, Ltd, said the proposed S2B partial offer for The Broken Hill Pty Company, Ltd, will not now proceed in the present form after an injunction was granted to B.H.P. on Monday by the Supreme Court of Victoria.

The Court rejected Bell’s application conditionally to dispatch the Part A take-over document, although hearing a B.H.P. challenge to the document was incomplete. The offer may be modified provided appropriate modifications were obtained from the National Companies and Securities Commission, and depending on the outcome of the legal action, Bell said.

Bell’s brief statement gave no further details.

Bell’s latest cum-dlvi-dend cash offer of sAust7.7o a share was conditional upon the Part A being posted to shareholders yesterday so that shares for which the offer was accepted would rank for the 20 cents a share final dividend declared by B.H.P. last week.

Bell was seeking a

minimum 18.4 per cent to a maximum 20.7 per cent of B.H.P.’s 1.258 issued shares on top of a present stake of 18.97 per cent. B.H.P. took legal action against Bell’s Part A on April 9, alleging this contained false and misleading material. In Melbourne the High Court granted an interlocutory injunction preventing the National Companies and Securities Commission from holding a public inquiry into the Broken Hill Proprietary Pty Company, Ltd, and Elders IXL, Ltd, crossshareholding agreement.

Mr Justice Dawson said the injunction would apply until the Full Court, sitting in Canberra, finally determined an application by Elders and B.H.P. seeking orders that the inquiry was outside the jurisdiction of the N.C.S.C. Justice Dawson adjourned further hearing of the application to the May sitting of the Full Court of the High Court. He also adjourned an alternative application by the two companies that the inquiry should not be held in public.