Bond’s Lonrho freeze lifted

Press, 26 July 1989, Page 33

Bond’s Lonrho freeze lifted

NZPA-AAP London Australian businessman Alan Bond has been victorious in London’s, High Court after a judge lifted the freezing order on the Bond group’s 21.5 per cent holding in international conglomerate, Lonrho, Pic. Judge Sir Nicolas Browne-Wilkinson ruled that “in the minds of Mr Bond and his executives” it was Bond Corp’s subsidiary, Bell Resources, that had been the purchaser of three contentious parcels of shares in Lonrho, the subject of the legal action. Lonrho had alleged that Bond Corp had deliberately released false information about the true beneficial owners of the stake and had called for an interim freeze on the shares to be maintained.

Sir Nicolas agreed with the Bond Corp version of events in that there had been a mistake in notifying the holding, but also attacked the performance of Bond’s management as “grossly inefficient” in meeting its duties under company and Stock Exchange law. The dispute centred on four parcels or tranches of shares that the Bond group purchased in Lonrho in September and October last year, totalling 95 million shares.

A subsequent bonus issue increased this to 114 million shares. Initially Lonrho was told that the beneficial owner of the stakes was Bond Corp subsidiary, Hurstmere. In late November it was told that the second, third and fourth tranches were in fact owned by a subsidiary of the cash-rich Bell Resources, which is 56 per cent owned by Bond Corp, and it was not until December 7 that the full extent of Bell’s involvement was made clear to the Australian Stock Exchange. The decision means the way is now clear for the Bond group to dispose of the troublesome holding in Lonrho, which it purchased for £360 million (SNZIOI3M). Bond offered the stake for sale on a tender basis earlier this year.