Cushing says he has control of Rural Equities

Friday 9th July 2004

Sir Selwyn Cushing's company H&G said today it had received shareholder approval to take control of Hawke's Bay based Rural Equities Ltd.

Approval was gained for H&G's $1.60 per share partial takeover offer, despite St Laurence Equities, which owns a 15% stake in Rural Equities, saying yesterday it had voted against the offer.

St Laurence itself made a market stand for a 19.9% stake in Rural Equities, forcing H&G to increase its initial $1.25 a share offer twice.

H&G's announced its bid in April. At the time Sir Selwyn's firm held a 25.3% stake in the company, while associates of the Cushing family owned another 9.3%. H&G director David Cushing said today the company had bid for 2,303,551 shares in Rural Equities, but acceptances had been received for 2,882,275 shares.

Acceptances will be scaled back to leave H&G and associates with a 50.1% stake in Rural Equities.

Cushing said H&G has a proven track record of value creation in the rural sector.

"Rural Equities has significant long term capital growth potential, which we will focus on. It is unlikely that any dividends will be paid for quite some time," Cushing said.

Rural Equities was spun off from Williams and Kettle during a reconstruction earlier this year.

It owns 31.9% of New Zealand Property Trust (NZRPT) and holds the management contract for the trust. NZRPT owns about 30 farm properties and a 856ha forest near Ngaruawahia with a total net current value of about $103 million.

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