Feb 2008 Financial News

$220m pay day for shareholders

Feb 15, 2008

A $220 MILLION PAY DAY is coming next week for almost 3 000 Barbados Shipping & Trading (BS&T) shareholders who tendered their shares to Neal & Massy.

That's when the Trinidadian conglomerate with substantial interests in oil and energy is expected to take up and pay for the shares tendered during a bruising takeover battle that followed a frustrated merger attempt.

Now that the way is finally clear for the Trinidadian firm to own BS&T outright, chief executive officer Bernard Dulal-Whiteway repeated assurances that there were no plans to cut back on labour.

"We assure Barbadians there are no plans as a result of this takeover to cut back on labour . . . but we want the company to perform better than it has," Dulal-Whiteway told the WEEKEND NATION in an interview yesterday.

He said money to purchase the shares had been deposited with its brokers and the corporation would soon be issuing eight million new shares.

Share-and-equity

The share issue was required to satisfy the share-and-equity deal offered to BS&T shareholders.

Dulal-Whiteway said his company had now secured 85 per cent of BS&T.

However as part of the negotiated settlement with the Barbados Securities Commission to end legal proceedings against the company, Neal & Massy would make an offer to BS&T shareholders, who still owned 15 per cent of company but may now want to take the Neal & Massy offer.

These shareholders will have until February 29 to tender their shares to the company.

Dulal-Whiteway also revealed that an independent valuation of Neal & Massy would be undertaken in order to determine if additional money would be paid to BS&T shareholders to satisfy another requirement.

The Neal & Massy boss said all the legal action brought against the company by the Securities Commission will end, and the cease-trade order was expected to be officially lifted shortly.

Commenting on the 13 month battle which at one point pitted Neal & Massy against its arch rival ANSA McAL, Dulal-Whiteway said he considered it "a learning experience".

He also called for harmonised capital market regulations in the region.

"It also taught us that sometimes we should not rush to get the courts involved in matters that regulators could deal with," he said. (GE)

Source:
Geralyn Edward
The Nation News
Thursday February 14, 2008

http://www.nationnews.com/story/292548195881645.php