Equitilink privatisation plans
Tuesday, May 26th 1998, 12:00AM
Equitilink's major shareholders, Brian Sherman and Laurence Freedman, plan to buy out the company's other shareholders for between A$30 million and A$35 million and privatise the group.Equitilink will announce the planned scheme of arrangement and the exact bid price for the remaining 40 to 50 percent of shares not owned by Sherman and Freedman within the next two days.
Earlier on Monday trade in Equitilink's shares was suspended pending an announcement.
"We're looking to privatise Equitilink through a new company of which Laurence Freedman and myself are the major shareholders," Sherman says.
"Within the next 48 hours we will inform the market of the price."
Equitilink said, last month, that it planned to focus on retail funds.
It agreed to allow Challenger International Ltd to take over its unlisted retail unit trusts worth A$225 million in exchange for Equitilink becoming Challenger's wholesale fund manager.
Equitilink's funds under management would remain unchanged at A$5.25 billion after the Challenger deal.
Equitilink's shares have dropped from a seven month high of 63 cents on April 3 and are well below the September 1997 level of 67 cents and its previous high of 94 cents in March 1994.
Equitilink was listed on the Australian Stock Exchange in December 1986 when 30 million shares were floated at 50 cents each.
It has tried since then to enlist support from major fund managers, but without much success.
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