Dec 2007 Financial News

BS&T share order stays

Dec 28, 2007

NEAL & MASSY has so far failed to get the Barbados Securities Commission to lift an order it imposed banning the Trinidadian company from paying Barbados Shipping & Trading (BS&T) shareholdersfor shares they want to sell to it.

Despite all its efforts to have the order removed "which prohibits Neal & Massy from taking up and paying for any BS&T shares tendered", the company said the order remained in effect.

As a result, Neal & Massy has ordered its legal team to have the High Court declare the commission's order "null and void, or alternatively to have it rescinded".

In a statement yesterday evening, Neal & Massy said: "On the basis of legal advice received, we are confident that the order is invalid on a number of grounds, one of which is that it was founded upon an entirely false premise."

The local regulator imposed the order on the grounds that Neal & Massy might have accepted shares from some BS&T shareholders on conditions not extended to all BS&T shareholders.

The company's chief executive officer Bernard Dulal-Whiteway has denied this.

In the meantime, Neal & Massy's takeover bid closed on December 17 and it had until yesterday under Trinidad & Tobago's regulations to take up the offer.

Under the Barbados Take-Over Bid Regulations, 2002, Neal & Massy must take up and pay for the BS&T shares tendered to it within 30 days of the closing.

The Trinidadian conglomerate, which has been in a seven-month-long takeover bid for BS&T, said it had sought an extension from the Trinidad and Tobago Securities Commission to match that allowed under the Barbados regulations.

Meanwhile, the company is still awaiting the outcome of court action taken by the Barbados Securities Commission to determine whether it or its former rival ANSA McAL broke any of the country's takeover regulations during the bidding process for BS&T.

The court is also being asked to rule on whether Neal & Massy's decision to tender all its shares to ANSA McAL on October 22 did not amount to a withdrawal of its offer. It is also to rule on the legality of Neal & Massy's purchase of BS&T shares at more than $9 on the Trinidad and Tobago stock exchange while offering only $8.50 on the Barbados market.

In addition, the court is being asked to rule whether ANSA McAL could have legally withdrawn its $10 per share offer for BS&T on October 22 on the grounds it stated. (GE)

Source:
The Nation Newspaper
December 28, 2007

http://www.nationnews.com/story/329912140409027.php