Bid for NZ paper may be opposed

ONE of the biggest institutional shareholders in the New Zealand media group Wilson & Horton, Sun Alliance, has hinted that it may not accept the revised bid from Independent Newspapers.

Earlier this week Independent increased its offer from 10.50 New Zealand dollars to NZ$11 a sharer and secured the backing of the W & H board. But reports from New Zealand have suggested that as much as 10 per cent of W&H is held by shareholders unwilling to sell at any price.

Independent must get acceptances in respect of 90 per cent of W & H shares by the offer closing date of November 8th if it is to compulsorily acquire the remaining shares.

Broker Mr John Rowley of SBC Warburg said: "You might have to actually prise the shares out of them to get them to sell."

One long term institutional shareholder, Sun Alliance, has spoken about the Independent offer, with Sun Alliance manager Mr Darryl Rowell commenting "I think NZ $11 is a fair price but at a fair price we are still wanting to be shareholders."

Some analysts have placed a value of well over $12 on these exchangeable shares and a number of institutions have indicated that they favour this alternative to the cash offer.

But in its letter to shareholders recommending the Independent offer, the W & H board says there is a limit to the number of exchangeable shares and these will be allocated on a first come first served basis. If Independent and the O'Reilly family trust, which have a combined 45 per cent in W & H, opt for cash from the takeover, it will still leave sufficient exchangeable shares to service only 54 per cent of the remaining W&H shares.