Brierley ups bid

Press, 23 July 1987, Page 26

Brierley ups bid

NZPA London Ron Brierley’s attempt to woo shareholders in a British engineering company, Molins, was stepped up dramatically on Tuesday (early yesterday NZ time) after a slow response to an original £B3 million ($NZ224.3M) bid. The New Zealand entrepreneur has increased his offer by more than 14 per cent to £98.4M (5273.3 M The first offer, through Brierley’s U.K. vehicle, Tozer Kemsley Millboum, closed on Monday. But it left TKM with acceptances from only 0.1 per cent of Molins shareholders to add to its own original 24 per cent holding.

The new offer, which closes on August 11, values each Molins ordinary share at 306 p, or 300 p for cash. The original offer, which was worth 253 p a share, or 251.5 p for cash, was repeatedly rejected by Molins management, who said TKM had “nothing to offer” the company. Last week, Molins stiffened its rejection with a forecast for 1987 of profits of at least £IOM ($27.7M), £IM ($2.7M) more than last year. Ron Brierley is, meanwhile, reported to have built up his 26 per cent stake in British life assurance company Equity & Law Life to almost 29.9 per cent — "the level which will virtually trigger a bid,” the London Daily News said.