GPG accepts court fine ruling, sells third British brewer

The investment company's Coats unit is "extremely disappointed" with the decision to reject its appeal against the 110 million euro fine.

Paul McBeth
Tue, 17 Jul 2012

BUSINESSDESK: Guinness Peat Group, the investment company winding up its portfolio, won't appeal further over a European General Court decision that imposed a 110 million euro fine and has sold out of its third British brewer this year.

The investment company's Coats unit is "extremely disappointed" with the decision to reject its appeal against the fine and "maintains that the European Commission's allegations of a market sharing agreement in the European haberdashery market in the period from 1977 to 1998 are unfounded", it said in a statement.

Coats paid the fine and interest by drawing on existing bank facilities.

In a separate statement, GPG said it had sold its remaining 6 million shares in 200-year-old Blackburn-brewer Daniel Thwaites on an ex-dividend basis. The investment company netted £4.9 million on the sale of its 10% stake and will reap a further £200,000 from a dividend payment.

Including the dividend, that indicates a sale price of 85 pence per share, a 8.6% discount to the stock's 93 pence closing price.

This year GPG reaped £54.1 million from the sale of its stake in Young & Co's Brewery and £1.7 million from 300-year-old Shepherd Neame.

Last week it spurned a $A220 million takeover bid for ASX-listed wealth manager ClearView Wealth, calling the offer "wholly inadequate". ClearView is GPG's third biggest asset behind Coats and New Zealand insurer Tower.

GPG has raised more than £300 million by divesting a third of its portfolio since embarking on its strategy to wind down last year, with a dozen investments sold this year.

Its shares rose 2.2% to 47 cents in trading yesterday, having shed 22% this year.

Paul McBeth
Tue, 17 Jul 2012

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GPG accepts court fine ruling, sells third British brewer