Milburn withdraws

Press, 24 August 1988, Page 38

Milburn withdraws

Milburn New Zealand (formerly New Zealand Cement Holdings) has withdrawn its Commerce Commission application to buy Winstone. Milburn New Zealand made the application in late May after the Commission decided to legally challenge the validity of the sale of Winstone to Golden Bay Cement Company, Ltd, a jointly owned subsidiary of Fletcher Challenge and Brierley Investments. Milburn’s chief executive, Mr Jerry Maycock, said the drawn out nature of the legal challenge and the continued amalgamation of Winstone with Fletcher Challenge made it impractical for Milburn to continue with its application. “The original reason for our application was to place Milburn in a position to be able to proceed quickly with an acquisition proposal when the then pending High Court proceedings

by the Commission were concluded,” he said in a statement. “We believed that the Fletcher Winstone arrangement could have been found to be in breach of the Commerce Act and that an order could have been made for Winstone to be divested.” However, the proceedings had taken a considerable time to reach a hearing. It now appeared unlikely that final resolution of this matter, probably by the Court of Appeal, would occur in the near future. The Fletcher/Winstone Group was continuing with its reorganisation of the two companies by selling assets and integrating business activities. Milburn New Zealand had accepted that even if the Commission proceedings were successful, it would not be realistically possible for Winstone to be sold in its previous form, Mr Maycock said. .