Release Time IMMEDIATE
Date 23 October 2000
BHP AND MITSUBISHI DECLARE
OFFER FOR QCT UNCONDITIONAL
The Broken Hill Proprietary Company Limited ("BHP") and Mitsubishi Development
Pty. Ltd. ("Mitsubishi") today announced that they have received acceptances
for over 50% of the shares in QCT Resources Limited ("QCT"), and have declared
their offer unconditional. The offer is made by their jointly owned bidding
vehicle MetCoal Holdings (Qld) Pty Ltd ("MetCoal").
"We are extremely pleased with the response we have had to our revised offer
for QCT,' said BHP Managing Director and CEO Paul Anderson and Mitsubishi
Managing Director Kenjiro Itadani.
"We welcome the announcement made by the Board of QCT that they unanimously
recommend shareholders accept the offer, and that they will be accepting with
respect to their own shares.
"QCT shareholders should note that the QCT Directors stated in their
recommendation that 'if MetCoal achieves acceptances for greater than 50.1%,
the resultant reduction in market liquidity and ASX index weighting may place
downward pressure on the share price following closure of the offer'. On this
basis, we encourage QCT shareholders to accept the offer as soon as possible,"
they said.
On 16 October, 2000, MetCoal announced it would increase the offer price for
all the shares in QCT to $1.30. All shareholders of QCT who accept the offer
will receive $1.20 cash from MetCoal. In addition, all shareholders of QCT who
acquired their shares of QCT prior to when the shares commenced trading
ex-dividend on 18 October, 2000 will receive the fully franked 10c special
dividend announced by QCT on Friday 13 October, 2000 from QCT. Shareholders
who acquired their QCT shares after the shares commenced trading ex-dividend
will only receive the $1.20 from MetCoal and not the dividend. The offer is
final and cannot be increased.
As set out in that announcement, the payment terms have now been shortened to
five business days for all accepting shareholders.
The offer is scheduled to close at 7.00 pm (Melbourne time) on 3 November,
2000.
For further information please contact:
BHP
Mandy Frostick
Manager Media Relations
Phone: 61 3 9609 4157 Mobile: 61 419 546 245
Robert Porter
Vice President Investor Relations
Phone: 61 3 9609 3540 Mobile: 61 419 587 456
Candy Ramsey
BHP Investor Relations Houston
Phone: (713) 961-8640
Mitsubishi
Robert Campese
Manager General Affairs
Phone: 61 2 9951 4838
