

The year’s best deal was Bapcor’s takeover of Hellaby Holdings.
The footwear unit had been up for sale numerous times over the years.
Hellaby had been trying to shed its reputation as a diversified investment firm.
New Zealand managers need to take more risks.
New Zealand’s regime governing the conduct of takeovers was aimed to kill off some of the “poison pill” and cowboy type conduct rife in the country during the wild 1980s. But some say the Takeovers Code still has deficiencies and that it is too lopsided in favour of bidders these days.
Director Paul Byrnes initially sold about half his stake of about 1.98 million shares in January and exited the remaining 980,086 shares yesterday