Rubicon meeting prelude to big vote

By CHRIS DANIELS

Rubicon shareholders could be forgiven for wanting to defer today's annual meeting till next month.

Not until then can they vote on the biggest issue facing the forestry and biotech company - namely, what to do with its cornerstone stake in Fletcher Challenge Forests.

Looming over today's meeting will be the battle to get approval for Fletcher's bid, with the Chinese Government-owned Citic, to buy the $1.3 billion Central North Island Forest Partnership assets.

If Fletcher shareholders approve the deal, Rubicon can finally exit its underperforming 17.8 per cent stake in Fletcher.

And it will get out at a good price. Its shares will be valued at 37c each, paid partly in cash, but mostly in a forest currently owned by Fletcher.

Fletcher shares are trading on the stock exchange for about 25c each.

The Rubicon board has already decided to support the Fletcher-Citic deal and was involved in putting together the scheme.

Since the deal was announced, the register of Rubicon shareholders has changed dramatically. GPG's overnight raid netted 19.9 per cent of the company.

A week after GPG hit the headlines with its Rubicon foray, New York hedge fund Perry Corporation snapped up 16 per cent of the company for $27 million.

Rubicon will, after today's meeting, appoint GPG executive directors Tony Gibbs and Dr Gary Weiss to the board. Perry will not seek board representation.

Rubicon shares have risen from 58c each to more than 75c this year. Much of the increase was attributed to investor hope that it may get out of the Fletcher Forests shareholding.

Rubicon made big money in its first six months, when it sold the Challenge chain of petrol stations for $50 million, its stake in Capstone Turbine Corporation for $44 million and its Brisbane fuel terminals for $22.4 million.

But a $5.4 million loss on its Argentine forestry company Forestadora Tapebicua and spending of $5.2 million on its ArboGen biotech research company have contributed little to progress in the second half of its debut year as a listed company.

For its first full year of business, Rubicon earned a net profit of $30.4 million on revenue of $73.8 million.