Rubicon stakeholders unite to kill GPG's takeover bid

By PAUL PANCKHURST

Two of the major institutional shareholders in forestry and biotech company Rubicon joined hands yesterday in an attempt to kill corporate raider Guinness Peat Group's partial takeover bid.

The move was described as rare for the New Zealand sharemarket.

GPG's bid to lift its 19.99 per cent stake to 50 per cent expires on Friday.

AMP Henderson Global Investors and American fund manager Castlerigg Master Investments yesterday said they had formally agreed not to sell to GPG.

Together they hold 17 per cent.

A second substantial security-holder notice filed yesterday revealed that three more large shareholders had also linked up: GPG adversary Perry Corporation, Tower Asset Management and US fund manager Bear, Stearns and Co.

The trio hold 25 per cent.

No detail was available on the nature of their agreement, but Tower flagged its opposition to GPG's 75c-a-share bid as recently as Monday.

Speaking after the developments, Macquarie Equities senior investment analyst Arthur Lim said: "The bid is dead as of today."

He said he had never seen institutional shareholders linking in this way to block a bid.

AMP Henderson chief investment officer Chris Wozniak acknowledged that the move was "reasonably unusual".

Institutions often sell at the last minute. Now, other shareholders know there will not be the institutional domino effect GPG might have hoped for.

Wozniak said yesterday's announcement was "the clearest way to signal to the market what our intentions are". He would not say a lot more.

GPG director Tony Gibbs could not be reached for comment last night.

He has said GPG's aim was to use Rubicon's 17.6 per stake in Fletcher Challenge Forests in efforts to consolidate and rationalise the poorly performing forestry sector.

Lim said yesterday's developments showed the depth of antagonism towards GPG as a result of the raider helping to shoot down a deal for Rubicon to sell its Fletcher Forests stake for 37c a share.

So far, GPG has inched ahead in its bid, which values the company at about $209 million.

It said this month that it had reached 22.1 per cent.

If the company fails to reach 50 per cent, it returns acceptances and goes back to 19.9 per cent.

Besides the showdown over the partial takeover offer, GPG is also preparing for a courtroom battle as it seeks the forfeiture of Perry Corporation's shareholding.

GPG says Perry hid its stake from the market. That hearing starts on December 9.