TPC relaxed about any Lion Bond bid

Press, 11 September 1989, Page 29

TPC relaxed about any Lion Bond bid

By

PAULA HANNAFORD

NZPA-AAP Canberra

The Trade Practices Commission would be “quite relaxed” about New Zealand brewer, Lion Nathan, acquiring Bond Corporation Holdings’ brewing assets, TPC chairman, Professor Bob Baxt, said yesterday. Lion, reportedly has agreed in principle to buy some, if not all, of Bond’s Australian brewery assets.

Professor Baxt said .yesterday the TPC would be “quite happy” for anyone other than John Elliott’s Elders IXL to acquire Alan Bond’s brewing assets. The TPC said last Friday it would vigorously oppose any move by Elders to increase its 48 per cent share of the Australian brewing market.

A Bond Corp spokesman yesterday refused to comment on speculation that Mr Bond was in New Zealand trying to negotiate the sale of his brewing interests to Lion Nathan and declined to reveal the whereabouts of Mr Bond.

Professor Baxt said yesterday the TPC had had discussions with Lion over the last couple of weeks, but

he was unaware whether an actual takeover bid had been launched by the New Zealand brewer.

Mr Bond and group senior executive, Mr Peter Beckwith, were reported to have been in Auckland until Saturday night and Mr Bond’s personal jet had been parked at Auckland Airport all week. Mr Elliott said late last week Elders had been organising a rescue package for Bond Corp, and that there were a number of Bond assets in which the Elders group was interested.

However, Mr Bond said he didn’t think Bond Corp needed to be rescued, but rather it needed to be supported. Professor Baxt has said the TPC had strong reservations about any sale of Bond Corp brewing assets to Elders, because the bid would strengthen the market dominance of Elders’ Carlton and United Breweries.

The merchant bank arm of Elders last week confirmed it was trying to stitch together a “rescue” package for the debt-ridden Bond group, which could result in the

breakup of Bond Corp’s brewing empire. Elders’ Finance chief executive, Mr Ken Jarrett, said that under the rescue proposal Elders would be interested in acquiring the Swan Brewery in Western Australia, which has about 12 per cent of the national market.

The continuing uncertainty about the future of Bond Corp has taken its toll on the company’s shares, which on Friday fell to a low of Aust3Bc — its lowest since August, 1984 — before recovering to close at 40c.

Analysts have said Swan, which has virtually all the Western Australian market but a negligible share of east coast sales despite a big marketing push last year, would lift Elders’ share of the national beer market to around 60 per cent.

Meanwhile, the deadline for the proposed sAust3.s billion (SNZ4.SB) sale of Bond Corp’s brewing assets to subsidiary Bell Resources has been postponed by three months to December 31 — six months after the announcement of the sale.