Sydney base for restructured Tag

Press, 1 June 1989, Page 45

Sydney base for restructured Tag

The trans-Tasman Tag group of companies will be reorganised into a Sydney-based entity with assets of sAust6o million (S7BM).

Tag Pacific, of Sydney, will emerge as the parent of all companies in the group after a series of share swaps outlined by the directors yesterday. Tag’s chairman, Mr Peter Wise, said Tag Pacific and Tag Corporation would merge, and Property Link and The Terrace Project would merge into a single property holding vehicle. This is the second proposal on restructuring within the Tag group. Last year Mr Wise put forward a proposal which would have separated Tag Property Link from Tag Corporation. The proposal was to cancel Tag Property Link shares and issue an identical number of shares in Property Link. The new company was to be called Tag Realty. The proposal would result in a better group structure, Mr Wise said in a statement.

Group treasury and the head office would be based in Sydney next April, but other-

wise all activities and personnel would remain unchanged. The arrangement came after several months of evaluation and independent advice, he said. The merger was subject to approvals, including that of the Tag Pacific shareholders at an extraordinary meeting and of the Terrace Project board. The merger involves O Tag Holdings (N.Z.), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tag Pacific, making a takeover offer for the remaining Tag Corporation ordinary shares of eight Tag Pacific shares for every five Tag Corporation ordinary shares held. Tag Holdings already holds 51.7 per cent of Tag Corporation. • Tag Pacific, which now is listed only in Australia, seeking listing on the New Zealand Stock Exchange. © The amalgamation of Tag Corporation’s Property Link with its 65% subsidiary,

The Terrace Project, by way of a reverse take-over. Tag has proposed that Terrace Project offer Tag Property Link shareholders nine new shares for every four held, resulting in the number of Terrace Project shares on issue rising from 9.9 million to about 35 million. • It is proposed that Terrace Project change its name to Property Link Holdings "to reflect its new direction.” • Various other transactions to complete the full proposal will result in Property Link Holdings becoming a 52% subsidiary of Tag Pacific. The company would have 1600 shareholders and assets of about SNZ2BM.

Tag Pacific would be boosted in size because of the merger with the number of shares on issue expected to rise 40% to 42 million. The number of shareholders would rise from 1000 to 2700 and on a consolidated basis, and the company was ex-

pected to have gross assets of more than SNZ7BM. The Anthony Group would retain firm control of the new merged group with a holding of about 52% of Tag Pacific as well as a direct 7% interest in Property Link Holdings.

Now there were five separate stock exchange listings within the group which had come about through rapid growth over a three-year period, said Mr Wise. It was in the best interests of the various shareholding groups for some change to take place because the state of the sharemarket and the economy was not conducive to a fragmented corporate structure such as Tag’s. The number of listings would fall to three. However, there were no current plans to include Lectrica Holdings in the merger proposal.

Further details of the merger proposal are expected to be announced shortly.