Oyster Bay to issue target company statement

Oyster Bay is preparing a target company statement on the merits of Delegat's Estate's $6 a share takeover offer -- and is no doubt dotting all the i's and crossing all the t's. Delegat's last takeover offer, at $4 a share, was scrapped by the High Court in Wellington last November due to concerns about information contained in the target company statement.

Delegat's had gained acceptances through the $4 offer that took it over the 50 per cent mark, but the bid was annulled due to controversy about valuations contained in the target company statement.

Rival bidder Peter Yealands contended Oyster Bay could be worth up to twice as much as the valuations contained in statement indicated.

When the High Court voided Delegat's bid, it also got a underaking from Mr Yealands that he would launch a bid of his own at no less than $4.50 a share.

But the Court released Mr Yealands from that undertaking last month when he agreed to sell his stake to Delegat's if they launched a $6 a share offer.

Delegat's wants to get a 50.01 per cent stake in Oyster Bay from its starting point of 32.58 per cent.

Delegat's yesterday sent shareholders the offer documents for the partial takeover offer.

Oyster Bay has already established an independent committee of directors to consider the offer and appointed independent adviser Grant Samuel & Associates to prepare a report on the bid.

Oyster Bay said it would send out a target company statement, including Grant Samuel's report, when the documents had been prepared. The company asked shareholders to wait until they had received this information before acting on Delegat's new offer.

- NZPA