Adsteam confirms lift in target IEL holding
NZPA-AAP Sydney John Spalvins’ Adelaide Steamship Co., has confirmed market suspicions that it has built up a stake of almost 14 per cent in sAustl.9 billion (SNZ2.4B) buy-out target, Industrial Equity, Ltd. The revelation of Adsteam’s move to strengthen its holding comes just three days before a crucial meeting of lEL minority shareholders to decide on the sAust24oc a share bid by the Abe Goldberg-led Corama Pty. Mr Spalvins has indicated his dissastisfaction with the offer, which he believes is too low, and threatens to use his influential stake to force a no vote.
The deal by Corama, which is 75 per cent owned by textile tycoon,
Mr Goldberg, and 25 per cent by lEL executives, Mr Rod Price and Mr Bill Loewenthal, values Sir Ron Brierley’s former Australian offshoot at $1.9 billion. It already has a 20 per cent holding, bought from Brierley Investments, and has agreed to purchase, at 240 c a share, BlL’s remaining 12 per cent and 20 per cent belonging to Goodman Fielder Wattie if shareholders give their approval. Neither BIL and Goodman Fielder nor Mr Price and Mr Loewenthal will be allowed to vote at the meeting, leaving Adsteam as the key to the outcome. In a notice to the Australian Stock Exchange, Adsteam disclosed it had lifted its stake by 1.34 per cent or 10.46 million shares to 13.89
per cent in on-market transactions between July 25 and September 6. It previously held 97.86 million shares. lEL shares remained unchanged at 225 c, 7 per cent below the offer price, as 811,000 changed hands on Friday. Corama originally planned to take over just a conrolling 52 per cent stake, but potential opposition from Mr Spalvins and other shareholders and suspected financing difficulties led to it extending the offer to 100 per cent of lEL.
Since the full bid was announced on August 18, the Cdrama team has been trying to finalise the terms of its finance agreement for a Part A offer with BT Australia and Citibank.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19890911.2.117.5
Bibliographic details
Press, 11 September 1989, Page 29
Word Count
341Adsteam confirms lift in target IEL holding Press, 11 September 1989, 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