Court grants election exception in Rubicon vote

By PAULA OLIVER

Multibillion-dollar US hedge fund Perry Corporation will be able to vote all of its Rubicon shares at Monday's annual meeting - but only on one agenda item.

The Court of Appeal yesterday ruled that Perry could vote all 36 million of its shares on the issue of the re-election of longtime Rubicon directors Bill Hasler and John Villiger.

For any other agenda items Perry is restricted to voting 12 million shares.

The legal drama arose after Justice Judith Potter ruled in March that Perry had broken securities laws by disguising the size of its stake in the forestry and biotech investment company.

Perry appealed against that judgment but the result of that appeal has yet to be determined - leaving the status of Perry's shares up in the air.

Yesterday the Court of Appeal determined that Perry should be able to vote all of its shares on the directorship matter because otherwise, Guinness Peat Group would gain an unfair advantage that had not been intended in Justice Potter's judgment. The rest of the agenda's items were routine enough for it not to be a concern.

GPG's voting power could potentially decide the directorship matter if shares were taken out of play, the judgment said.

"If Dr Villiger and Mr Hasler are not re-elected, then this will change the composition of the board, depriving it of two independent and experienced directors," the Court of Appeal judgment said.