Mainfreight has turned down a request from Toll Holdings for a seat on Owens Group's board in the first contact between the two since Toll blocked Mainfreight's full takeover of Owens.
There was no mincing around when Toll rang last week seeking board representation. Don Braid of Mainfreight toldToll to "get ****ed".
Toll is running Tranz Rail as an 84.2 per cent shareholder and has signalled an intention to be a player in any consolidation of transport companies in this country. It has not ruled out a tilt at Mainfreight.
Toll purchased 12 per cent of Owens from AMP to stop Mainfreight absorbing Owens into its own business. Mainfreight is now running Owens as a 79 per cent shareholder.
Mainfreight announced yesterday it had sold $16 million of new shares to institutions and professional investors in the first leg of a refinancing of bank funding for its Owens bid. The second leg is a rights issues of up to $20 million to be held by March next year.
The sale of 12.6 million shares at $1.27 each, a discount to Monday's closing price of $1.34, was handled by ASB Securities. The new shares are equal to 15 per cent of the company's enlarged capital.
Braid said the placement was a sensible way of going about the refinancing and Mainfreight had moved quickly because there was good support from New Zealand and international institutions.
Bank arrangements had required a first money raising by December 31 and a second by March next year.
Mainfreight itself was "not for sale", Braid said. He said the discussion with Toll last week was terse even though Mainfreight was a major customer of Tranz Rail.
There was no need for Toll to have influence in Owens and no need to take the 12 per cent stake, he said.
Toll has also been looking at the Lambert Group, strategically important because it owns a log stevedoring operation at the Port of Tauranga and a log stacking business.
