Partial bid for Rubicon scrip

A series of associated investment funds is making a partial offer for 8.83 per cent of shares in wood products and forest biotechnology investor Rubicon.

The offer price is 70c a share, compared to the last sale price on Friday of 55c and a year high in October of 99c.

The funds involved are managed and administered by New York-based Dorset Management Corporation as investment manager and adviser, and together are referred to as Knott.

Collectively, the funds already hold 18.5 per cent of Rubicon. In addition, David Knott, the sole shareholder and director of Dorset, holds or controls a further 0.98 per cent shareholding in Rubicon, the offer document said.

If the offer was successful, Knott would lift its aggregate shareholding in Rubicon to 27.33 per cent. Knott and its associates would collectively hold or control 28.31 per cent.

Rubicon was formed out of the separation of the Fletcher Challenge Group and listed in 2001. It included shareholdings in ArborGen and Tenon which are now its two remaining investments.

After considerable restructuring, Tenon is now a wood products company focusing on high value moulding and millwork markets in the United States. It is 58 per cent-owned by Rubicon.

ArborGen, a forest biotechnology company based in South Carolina whose research includes biofuels, is a third owned by Rubicon. ArborGen has a large Australasian operation.

In its offer document today, Knott said it did not anticipate any changes in Rubicon should it be successful with its offer.

Knott believed in the existing strategic direction of Rubicon, and the future value potential of Tenon and ArborGen.

It wanted to see the annual funding of ArborGen maintained as the investment was advanced to stand alone commercial status, Knott said.

It also supported the continued development and growth of Tenon in its core market segments.

Knott was a passive investor and was not seeking board representation on Rubicon, whose board and management it supported.

- NZPA