Suitors vie for Hedley fund
THE future of battered hotel property fund Hedley Leisure Group will be considered today when the company's board considers prospective suitors at a board meeting in Sydney.
It is believed there has been a strong show of interest in HLG which announced two weeks ago it had received approaches for part or all of the property trust since it was hit hard by speculation on its future in the share market.
The Cairns Post understands no definite offers have been put to HLG but that expressions of interest have been strong.
understands no definite offers have been put to HLG but that expressions of interest have been strong.Potential suitors have been named as the Laundy family which has a stake in NLG, a major tenant of HLG hotels and the rival ALE hotel group.
There also had been some speculation that corporate raider Sir Ron Brierley may have been readying himself to snap up HLG at what some still believe is a bargain price, despite its bounce back on the share market yesterday.
However, it is believed Sir Ron’s interests may lay more in NLG than in HLG.
HLG’s shares rose 16c to close at 95c yesterday on the back of trading of 103,859 shares.
At one stage they reached 99.5c after a voluntary suspension of trade, the result of a special crossing of 10.8 million shares between Opes Prime and Tricom, was lifted.
The suspension was lifted after HLG explained to the ASX Friday’s 47.5c a share special crossing which was cancelled on Monday along with a number of other deals done by Tricom and Opes prime.
The suspension resulted in a margin call on Tom Hedley’s private company which holds 77 million (56 per cent) of HGL shares. Mr Hedley has a margin loan of $8 million against 20.6 million HLG shares but it is understood yesterday’s margin call, which was paid in cash, was only for a small share parcel: less than 2.5 per cent.
In other securities exchange moves yesterday, Cairns’s other embattled group, CEC, is also clawing back some lost ground.
From a low of 53c, CEC shares have slowly traded their way back to 89c, jumping by 13c yesterday with 203,402 shares traded.
CEC is still to release a promised statement to the ASX about its debt reduction strategy, promised almost a month ago.
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On alert: Sir Ron Brierley may be preparing to snap up HLG.
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