Hirst offloads last shares in Feltex

Jim Walsh

Australian firm Godfrey Hirst has sold the last of its shares in carpet-maker Feltex after the collapse of merger talks last month.

Finance director Jim Walsh confirmed yesterday that the last remaining shares had been sold after the company had reduced its stake to 4.57 per cent last week.

"We tried hard for many months, spent quite a lot of money and we were unsuccessful and that's it. We've sold our shares and moved on," he said.

One analyst said the involvement of privately-owned Godfrey Hirst and the potential for a merger had been one of the last remaining positive elements to the stock.

Another analyst said it was possible no one had acquired more than 5 per cent "or somebody took the whole lot. If that's the case then somebody is building a position."

Shareholders with less than 5 per cent of a company do not need to inform the stock exchange about trading movements. No substantial shareholder notices have been issued.

Feltex said last month that merger talks between the two companies had been stopped with a potential deal regarded as not being in the best interest of shareholders.

Godfrey Hirst's initial merger proposal would have led to a reverse takeover of Feltex, the New Zealand carpet-maker said.

Walsh said there was no particular sticking point that led to the breakdown in talks.

"We put a proposal that we thought would have been attractive, the Feltex board had a different view and we were unable to reach agreement," he said.

"It gets down to perceptions of value and their assessment was different to ours."

After the merger talks collapsed, more discussions about a possible asset sale also failed to reach agreement. "... beyond that there was no point holding shares."

Feltex shares were steady at 38c yesterday.