Majority Accept T. Nelson Offer

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31081, 9 June 1966, Page 21

Majority Accept T. Nelson Offer

(New Zealand Press Association)

BLENHEIM, June 8.

Most shareholders of Marlborough Transport have accepted the offer by Transport Nelson Holdings for a shareholding in the Blenheim company, a spokesman for the firm said this morning. The information would be passed on to the Nelson company.

The general manager of Transport Nelson (Mr D. McPherson) said he was not in the position to give the percentage of acceptances. Some of the acceptance papers were in Nelson, some in Blenheim, while the Nelson company was aware of two or three others yet to come forward. The offer expired last night. In its original offer, Transport Nelson Holdings expressed the wish for a 90 per cent shareholding in the Marlborough company. “But we cannot tell if we have got that until all the papers are tabulated,” Mr McPherson said. If the 90 per cent was not forthcoming, he said, the directors would have to decide whether to go ahead with a slightly less percentage. The offer accepted by Marlborough shareholders was the second made by Transport Nelson.

The original offer was 37s 6d for each ordinary 20s share, 15 ordinary 5s shares in Transport Nelson for each four fully paid-up ordinary 20s shares, and 22s in cash for each preference 20s share. In an effort to keep local control of the company, a group of Blenheim businessmen made a counter-proposal —4ss cash for each ordinary share and 25s cash for each preference share. No written offer was made to the Marlborough company by the group, and the Nelson firm made its second offer—the cash equivalent of 45s for a 20s ordinary share.