News Corp raises HWT bid price
NZPA-AAP Sydney News Corporation, Ltd, announced yesterday it would raise its cash offer for the Herald and Weekly Times, Ltd, (HWT) to $l5 a share cash from $l2 a share as announced in its offer of December 3. News said it would also increase its paper alternative offers to four News shares, plus $5 cash, for every five HWT shares, or four five-year 5 per cent $lB News convertible notes for every five HWT shares. The increased paper offers compared with previous News paper offers of two News shares for every three HWT shares or two News $lB 5 per cent convertible notes for every three HWT shares. It countered an increased bid for HWT of
$13.50 a share plus two paper offers from Mr Robert Holmes a Court’s J. N. Taylor Holdings, Ltd. The announcement of the increased offer coincided with a surprise arrival yesterday of News Corporation’s chief executive, Mr Rupert Murdoch, at an informal meeting of board members of Queensland Press, Ltd, an HWT associate firm. The increased News offer compared with yesterday’s market closing price for HWT shares of $13.55. The new offer values HWT at $2.3 billion compared with the $2.18 valuation placed on HWT by J. N. Taylor. Mr Peter Chergwyn, the finance director of News Corporation’s Australian arm, News, Ltd, said the appropriate documentation relating to the increased offer would be
registered with the Victorian Corporate Affairs Commission as soon as possible. Earlier yesterday the Perth legal firm, Keall Brinsden, acting for J. N. Taylor, said it had not ruled out legal action over News Corporation’s Part A offer for HWT in spite of the release of a revised document on Thursday. A spokesman for Keall Brinsden said Taylor’s legal advisors were still looking at the new Part A document Keall Brinsden has written to News charging that the original Part A failed to mention Federal Court proceedings over the nationality of Murdoch, now a United States citizen. The letter sought an undertaking that the Part A not be dispatched until the nationality issue was finalised.
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Press, 10 January 1987, Page 29
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349News Corp raises HWT bid price Press, 10 January 1987, Page 29
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