Coles moves on Prog. Ent.
PA Wellington Magnum Corporation has shrugged off the emergence of Melbournebased retailer Coles Myer, Ltd, as a rival bidder for Progressive Enterprises. Confirming rumours of a counter offer to the Magnum take-over launched early this month, Coles Myer declared it had picked up a 6.1% stake — in a brief statement that shed no light on its intentions. Coles Myer added that Its buying would continue and the acquisition of a
higher percentage was likely. Magnum is already assured of at least a 65 per cent interest in Progressive, this being the Rainbow Corp, Ltd, holding which has passed to Brierley Investments, Ltd, in its full take-over of Rainbow. Itself 67 per cent Brier-ley-owned, Magnum has had a formal acceptance from Brierley of the offer for Progressive which is being mailed to shareholders this week. The take-over is set to bring together Progres888888888888
sive’s North Island Foodtown supermarket chain with Magnum’s South Island Countdown supermarkets, and the J. Rattray and Son food wholesaler. Magnum’s managing director, Mr Bob Matthew, said today it was confident of picking up a higher. level of ownership In Progressive from among its 13,000 shareholders, many of whom were also shareholders in Magnum. Mr Matthew told NZPA he was relaxed about the Coles Myer offer and his company was prepared to see Progressive have another large shareholder. “We’ve got no preoccupation about total owner-
ship of Progressive,” he said.
He added that he had no knowledge of Coles Myer’s intentions and that company had made no contact with Magnum. “It may well view a long term investment in Progressive as a sensible investment, and I wouldn’t argue with that,” Mr Matthew said. Coles Myer said it had purchased Progressive shares through various brokers in the last few days in both on and off market deals, at prices from $3.60 to $4.10, the level at which it closed yesterday. A total of 4.9 million Progressive shares were crossed on the market for $19.9 million.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19871126.2.140.5
Bibliographic details
Press, 26 November 1987, Page 29
Word Count
331Coles moves on Prog. Ent. Press, 26 November 1987, Page 29
Using This Item
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Press. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 New Zealand licence. This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Copyright in all Footrot Flats cartoons is owned by Diogenes Designs Ltd. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise these cartoons and make them available online as part of this digitised version of the Press. You can search, browse, and print Footrot Flats cartoons for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Diogenes Designs Ltd for any other use.
Acknowledgements
This newspaper was digitised in partnership with Christchurch City Libraries.
Log in