NZOG sells part of Otter stake to Normandy

By Phil Boeyen, ShareChat Business News Editor

Friday 5th April 2002

Australian mining company Normandy NFM has failed to reach the 90% compulsory acquisition level for Otter Gold despite a last-minute sale of shares by New Zealand Oil & Gas (NZSE: NOG).

Normandy says that its offer closed earlier this week with acceptances at 88.87% and it expected the final tally to go slightly higher with postal acceptances.

"On the final day of the offer a significant level of acceptances were received amounting to 3.7 million shares or 4.4% of Otter. This was largely attributable to acceptances received from both NZ Oil & Gas and Resources Trust," the company says.

In February NZ Oil & Gas said it would not sell into the offer but on the final day the company agreed to sell around half its of its 3.5 million shares to the Australian bidder.

Company secretary Brian Roulston says NZOG continues to believe there is upside to its Otter stake, which is why it has held onto just over 1.7 million shares.

However he says the board also took note of the increase in Normandy's share price over recent weeks.

When Normandy first announced its takeover bid at the beginning of October last year its shares were trading at around A$9.30, making its offer of 1.9 Normandy NFM shares for every 100 shares worth A17.67 cents per share.

The shares are currently trading at up to A$15.00, the equivalent of around A28 cents per share.

Otter's primary assets are a 60% interest in the Tanami joint venture and 33% interest in the Waihi Operations in New Zealand, held through the Martha Hill and Union Hill joint ventures.

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