Marlborough Lines extends Horizon offer a second time

Monday 2nd August 2010

Marlborough Lines extended its offer for shares in Horizon Energy Distribution for a second time, giving shareholders a further week to sell their shares.

Marlborough is aiming to lift its holding to 15% from 10.1%, offering $4.06 a share. As at the company’s last disclosure on July 26 it had 12.5% of the stock. The South Island utility hired First NZ Capital to acquire as many as 1.2 million shares more shares.

Marlborough’s foray into Horizon has put it at odds with the utility’s major shareholder, Eastern Bay Energy Trust with 77.3%, which had urged minority shareholders to ignore the offer. Marlborough paid $4.15 for its initial stake, which included a pending dividend payment.

The South Island company initially sought 50.1% of Horizon last September at $3.96 a share, prompting a counter-bid from EBET at $4 - an effort that failed when a Bay of Plenty Maori trust challenged the quality of Horizon's disclosures in takeover documents.

A subsequent Takeovers Panel investigation, sought by Marlborough Lines, found Horizon breached the Takeovers Code by failing to identify the impact of accounting treatment changes on revised profit forecasts. Marlborough already owns 50% of Nelson Electricity and 51% of Otago Net, also both local electricity monopoly networks.

Shares of Horizon last traded at $4.06 on July 26.

Businesswire.co.nz

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