2 Corporate Raiders Go After Holmes a Court

MELBOURNE, Australia — Australian corporate raider Robert Holmes a Court is being raided.

Polo-playing publisher Kerry Packer and New Zealand’s Ron (the Raider) Brierley on Thursday bid $606 million for the core of Holmes a Court’s empire.

“It’s fascinating to have one entrepreneur taking on another like this,” said stock analyst and longtime Holmes a Court watcher Tony Moody of A. C. Goode & Co.

“It’s all part of the game, and of course, it is a game,” he said.

Holmes a Court now faces the same threat he made to companies the world over, including U.S. oil giant Texaco and steelmaker USX.

Analysts say Brierley took 4% of Holmes a Court’s Bell Resources in market raids this week before he made the $1.10 bid ($1.50 Australian) for all 550 million shares.

The bid was a “spoiler” aimed at thwarting Holmes a Court’s plans to reshape a corporate empire devastated by the October stock market crash, analysts said.

Holmes a Court’s Bell companies lost almost $740 million in the crash. The Perth millionaire, who once topped Packer as Australia’s richest man, proposed merging his companies and rebuilding.

“It’s a major step for a company to change its objectives in this way, and our whole balance and our whole direction must take a new course,” Holmes a Court told his shareholders last month.

Holmes a Court companies have sold billions of dollars in assets, including the $1.5-billion sale last month of 20% of Australia’s largest company, Broken Hill Proprietary.

Bell Resources holds 12% of Broken Hill and under Holmes a Court’s plan was to have bid for sister company Bell Group, which is 43% owned by Holmes a Court.

Analysts said even the merged company would be worth at least $1.46 a share--far more than the Brierley/Packer bid and lower than Bell Resources on its own.

“It’s clear that Robert would never give up at this price. Maybe if they changed $1.50 to $2.50, he’d be a seller,” Moody said. “It would be an absolute steal at $1.50, but it won’t happen.”

Packer is used to getting a good deal. Last year, he sold his privately owned television network to fellow entrepreneur Alan Bond for more than $740 million.

An Australian magazine last year named Holmes a Court Australia’s richest man, putting his worth at $1.02 billion against $950 million for Packer.