GPG injuncts rival Rubicon investor

By CHRIS DANIELS

Corporate raider Guinness Peat Group has won a High Court injunction banning its rival Perry Corporation from selling its stake in Rubicon.

The injunction, awarded in the High Court at Auckland yesterday, means that Perry is unable to sell its shares until a victor emerges from its looming legal battle with GPG.

In a separate action GPG has asked the High Court to order Perry to forfeit all of its nearly 16 per cent stake in Rubicon, for which it paid $27 million.

The forfeited shares would effectively be cancelled and Perry would lose all its money.

GPG bought 19.9 per cent of Rubicon last month, but subsequently found its influence stymied by Perry's 16 per cent stake in the company.

Perry may not want to sell its Rubicon shares, but by barring it from disposing of any of its shares GPG is clearly showing it intends to make a fight out of it.

GPG may also be concerned that the Perry stake may be sold to a party friendly to that company's ideas on the future direction of Rubicon.

Perry has been a long-term owner of Rubicon shares and GPG wants to use Rubicon's 17.6 per cent stake in Fletcher Challenge Forests to fulfil its vision, as yet unspecified, for the forestry industry.

In its primary court action, GPG maintains that Perry disguised the extent of its holding in Rubicon.

It says that Perry initially acquired 11.7 per cent of Rubicon and then on May 31 last year advised that its shareholding had been reduced to 4.9 per cent. But in fact "Perry retained a relevant interest in the shares".

A forfeiture of shares would take GPG's stake in Rubicon to more than 20 per cent, but it would be unlikely to trigger a takeover offer under the Takeovers Code because the increase would not have been gained through an active acquisition process.