Kerr reiterates 'unpopular' message to PGC shareholders

George Kerr’s Australasian Equity Partners (AEP) has extended its takeover offer for Pyne Gould Corporation to March 30 and declared the offer fully unconditional.

The offer cannot be further extended as per the Takeovers Code. 

Shareholders who accepted the offer thus far will be paid for their shares no later than February 22, while any shareholders accepting the offer from tomorrow will be paid no later than seven days after the date their acceptance form is received by the takeover bidder.

AEP is the takeover vehicle of Mr Kerr, a PGC director and shareholder, and US hedge fund Baker Street Capital.

They are offering 37c-a-share for PGC, which consists of an eclectic mix of assets following the merger of its Marac finance unit into Heartland New Zealand.

The offer is well short of the valuation put on the company by Grant Samuel of between 49c and 57c-a-share but has been pitched to shareholders as cash in the hand now, instead of a long road to share price recovery without dividend payments.

In a letter to shareholders Mr Kerr said AEP has received acceptances from more than 14000 shareholders in respect of 65% of PGC shares.

'Unpopular but realistic'
Mr Kerr again spelt out his message to minority shareholders, some of who are his relatives, that PGC faces a difficult and complex task of realising value from its remaining assets.

“At the launch of this Offer, we said the process of recovering asset value is likely to take both a lot more capital and a lot more time.

“Today, as we declare the Offer totally unconditional, there is no change in our view and our strategy.

“Prior to 2009 PGC shareholders received dividends year after year. In the later years these dividends were paid based on, in hindsight, illusory profits.

“Therefore while our message is not popular, it does, however, have the advantage of being realistic. Given the nature of the remaining assets, shareholders should not have unrealistic expectations of forecasts for financial results in the near term. Our expectation is that PGC is very unlikely to pay a dividend for many years.”

Mr Kerr said many of PGC’s largest shareholders had accepted the offer.

He said AEP will be discussing “appropriate PGC board representation” immediately.

“In addition, we will work with the PGC board to appoint an appropriately qualified independent director to replace Bruce Irvine, who has recently resigned from the Board.”

PGC shares remained unchanged at 36 cents.