Coronet Eyes Uk And Asian Offshoots
Sydney Morning Herald
Thursday February 18, 1988
Mr Ian Joye's Coronet Equities NZ has launched paper takeover bids for Coronet Far East and Coronet United Kingdom to consolidate the group and pool resources in the wake of the sharemarket crash.
Coronet Equities NZ is offering one of its shares (valued by the market yesterday at 25c) for every share in Coronet Far East (15c) and every share in Coronet UK (16c).
The UK and Asian offshoots of the Coronet group were floated in March and August respectively as cash boxes to invest in UK and Hong Kong markets.
Shares issued in both floats were offered at 60c each or about four times the current market price.
It is not clear what impact the market crash has had on the companies, but all will be revealed in an independent assessment of the bids being prepared by the target companies' advisers, Coopers and Lybrand, and merchant bank Whitlam Turnbull.
The bids value Coronet UK at $24.6 million and Coronet Far East at $27.7 million. However, the amount of scrip that could change hands is about half these values since Coronet NZ already owns 56.1 per cent of the UK group and 43.9 per cent of the Hong Kong group.
Mr Joye said the offers would allow shareholders to participate in a much larger group which would be better placed to take advantage of the crash in world sharemarkets. He intends to keep both groups listed.
Meanwhile, the battle for Cumberland Credit between Mr Joye and TNT slowly rolled on.
The National Companies and Securities Commission yesterday notified FAI Insurances of its intentions on FAI's technical breach of the Companies Code in its dealings in Cumberland shares.
A spokesman for the NCSC declined to say what its intentions, if any, were
FAI and the NCSC return to the Victorian Supreme Court tomorrow, when FAI will notify the court of its intentions in light of the results of its private hearing into trading in Cumberland shares.
© 1988 Sydney Morning Herald
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