KEY POINTS:
Christchurch City Council's investment arm would like to own 100 per cent of Lyttelton Port Co (LPC) one day, but for now is trying to buy 2.48 per cent more of the company than it owned yesterday morning.
Christchurch City Holdings (CCH) said yesterday that it wanted to buy 2.5636 million shares at $2.75 each to take its stake to 78.2 per cent from 75.7 per cent. That is all it can purchase under creep provisions of the Takeovers Code without making a bid.
By close of play, it had purchased 1.229 million shares for $3.38 million. That takes its stake to 76.89 per cent.
Port Otago has a blocking 15 per cent stake. Given the Port Otago shareholding, CCH considered it was not appropriate to make a takeover offer at this time, CCH chief executive Bob Lineham said.
CCH wants LPC delisted from the sharemarket but the decision is not its to make. LPC chairman Rodger Fisher said LPC has not made any request to the NZX to delist and ultimately it was a decision for NZX.
The port was not making any recommendation to shareholders about whether or not to accept CCH's offer.
Lineham said LPC had 1430 shareholders owning 8.8 per cent of the company outside the major shareholders.
Because of the listed status of LPC, CCH was unable to receive confidential strategic information on the port, or participate in key decisions without CCH being prevented from buying and selling LPC shares. That was unsatisfactory, Lineham said.
Any proposal to cause LPC to delist was not inconsistent with the recent announcement that LPC and Port Otago were exploring a possible merger of their respective operating and commercial activities, Lineham said.
- NZPA
