Impala takes 20.8% stake

Press, 9 July 1986, Page 35

Impala takes 20.8% stake

NZPA Hong Kong Mr Bruce Judge’s Hong Kong vehicle, Impala Pacific Corporation, has acquired a 20.8 per cent stake in Goode Durrant and Murray. Group Pic, for £5 million, the “South China Morning Post” has reported. The shareholding was acquired from the Lon-don-based United Kingdom Temperance and Provident Fund, by the offshore investment Vehicle for Mr Judge’s i

Brisbane-based Ariadne Group. IPC paid £1 a share for five million shares in Goode Durrant, a trading, property and financial services company listed on the London Stock Exchange. An IPC spokesman said the acquisition represented a long-term view of Goode Durrant He said there were no plans to use the stake to launch a take-over bid. . Financing for the deal would be raised internally.

Goode Durrant is controlled by the Wearing Trust, a family company which holds 29.41 per cent It acquired the stake early last year when 60 per cent of the shareholding came on the market with Temperance and General Provident gaining 20.8 per cent and Globe Investment Trust 10 per cent. Goode Durrant which has net tangible assets of £73.6 million, is involved in merchant banking and

construction in the U.K. The acquisition reflected the aggressive corporate strategy of the Ariadne Group, which is rapidly spreading Its wings in Britain and the U.S., analysts said. In Hong Kong, the group is linked through IPC with Sing Tao in the development company Scilla, which is building a hotel, office blocks and retail accommodation on a prime site in a SHKI.3 billion (SNZ3O9 million) project