Rubicon agrees to allow amended GPG bid

By NZPA

Tuesday 24th September 2002

Forestry investor Rubicon Ltd today agreed to allow Guinness Peat Group (GPG) to make an amended takeover bid for the company.

GPG owns 19.9 percent of Rubicon and wants to make an amended bid for an additional 40 percent of the company at 75 cents a share, after the Takeovers Panel thwarted an earlier takeover attempt .

Rubicon said today it was prepared to allow the amended GPG bid, which values the company at $210 million, on the condition that the bid be sent out on Friday, September 27.

GPG, the investment vehicle of corporate raider Sir Ron Brierley, last week accused Rubicon directors of deliberately frustrating its takeover attempt by refusing to promptly send offer details out to its shareholders.

Rubicon told GPG it would have to wait until Friday , saying it should be posted with an independent directors' recommendation and an assessment from valuers Grant Samuel.

The offer does not become official until it is sent out to shareholders.

Shares in Rubicon, which have traded on the New Zealand Stock Exchange this year at an average of 64c each, closed unchanged today at 72c -- just below GPG's offer price.

GPG's takeover proposal is conditional on its getting at least 50 percent.

An earlier $67 million takeover offer was declared to be against the rules by the Takeovers Panel, because it included a section saying that if GPG failed to reach 51.99 percent, then it would settle for a stake anywhere between 30 percent and 50 percent, which would require shareholder approval.

The panel said GPG had to specify a percentage it was after, not give a range.

GPG wants to gain a foothold in the forestry industry through its control of Rubicon, which at 18 percent is the single biggest shareholder in Fletcher Challenge Forests.

GPG director Tony Gibbs spoke of a grand plan for consolidation of the forestry industry when he used his Rubicon shareholding to campaign against Fletcher Challenge Forests' failed $1.4 billion plan to buy the huge Central North Island Forestry Partnership.

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