Stir in meat shares

Press, 1 July 1983, Page 17

Stir in meat shares

By

ADRIAN BROKKING,

commercial editor

Canterbury Frozen Meat, Ltd, acknowledged yesterday that it was standing in the market for a 24.9 per cent interest in R. and W. Hellaby, Ltd.

An Auckland sharebroking firm, Hendry, Hay, Smythe, and Horton announced yesterday that they were offering 135 c for each Hellaby share. This compared with sales on Wednesdav of

117 c. However, the market price quickly outstripped the bid, with 885,000 of the shares selling at 145-146 c — 29c up on Wednesday’s close, and 10c more than the bid price. Large parcels of Hellaby shares were crossed yesterday — more than 6.5 million in total — but very few at the bid price, a far short of the C.F.M. target.

C.F.M. 'is controlled by the Primary Producers' Cooperative Society. Simultaneously, the market also took off in Southland Frozen Meat, Ltd, with the Dunedin broker, John Ried and Son, buying (but not standing in the market) at 305 c against the last sale at 280 c. Nearly 500,000 traded at 305, and SFM closed at 308. This is 3.1 per cent of the SFM captial. It is believed that the PPCS — its chief executive, Mr I. H. Jenkinson, could not be reached yesterday — is the buyer of SFM shares, and wants about 1,000,000. Sources close to the meat industry expressed surprise and confusion over the moves. Mr lan Donald, the chief executive of Wrightson NMA — which has a 20 per cent interst in SFM — said that his firm was watching events closely. It is thought that the reason for the PPCS interest in the two companies must be the fact that after the take-over by the Meat Board of all sheepmeat

trading, PPCS has lost the main source of its strength — getting the full, and a high trading price for its members compared with the meat schedule price.

Another factor might be that the society is anticipating the findings by the Task Force on the meat industry, and is strengthening its position in meat processing.