Neal & Massy,
to merge with Barbados-based BS&T
BS&T chairman Sir Allan Fields ( L) and Neal & Massy
Chief Executive Bernard Dulal-Whiteway.
Petroleumworld
Port
Spain
Petroleumworldtt.com
05 20 07
Neal & Massy
Holdings, one of biggest
Trinidad-based conglomerate, says it will merge
its operations with Barbados' biggest
conglomerate, BS & T a Barbados-based Shipping
and Trading Company to form one of the
largest Caribbean corporations.
Neal & Massy Chief Executive Bernard
Dulal-Whiteway said the new entity would be called
Neal & Massy BS&T Group Ltd. and would
have more than US$2 billion in assets and annual
revenues, and will employ more than 9,000 people
across the region.
"This is a merger of two companies that is
handled through an amalgamation process. Both Neal & Massy
and BS&T have enjoyed a very good relation
over the last 10 years, so much so that both of
us invested in each other.
"We see it as a very good marriage after
many years of courtship because the two companies,
whilst they are in similar industries, we don't
really overlap in any one territory to the extent
that there is going to be any fallout or loss of
jobs," he added.
BS&T chairman Sir Allan Fields, made it clear
the proposal, which was yet to be approved by the
Securities Commission
of Barbados and the Trinidad & Tobago Securities
and Exchange Commission, was a "friendly merger" of "unequals" but "BS&T
was not for sale".
Regulatory approval
Dulal-Whiteway said that the new entity would
be registered and headquartered in Trinidad and
Tobago and would continue to trade shares on both
the Trinidad and Tobago and the Barbados Stock
Exchanges following regulatory approval of the
Securities and Exchange Commissions in both countries.
Shareholders
of BS&T will exchange their stock
for Neal & Massy shares and this will be done
by an exchange ratio process, Dulal-Whiteway said,
adding that the exchange ratio would be announced
by next week.
Fields
said he was positive regulatory authorities would
give the plan the green light within a matter
of days.
After
that, he said, it would provide BS&T's
3 000 shareholders with details of the merger,
explaining to them why it was in their best interest
to support the deal.
"At
the appropriate time . . . we will hold an extraordinary
meeting with shareholders and
if the shareholders bless it, then we move forward."
However,
he stressed that "in the unlikely
event" local shareholders did not approve
the merger, then "it is business as usual
for BS&T and Neal & Massy . . . . Nothing
will change".
"The Barbadian shareholders who go along
this road with us will become shareholders in a
much larger company and that larger company will
have investments in energy and things that the
BS&T shareholders do not have access to," Sir
Allan told the media.
The new entity will now run very diverse operations
from retail to finance to energy, among others,
in a range of Caribbean territories and in the
United States.
The Neal and Massy Group of Companies is a conglomerate
operating in the majority of the English-speaking
countries of the Caribbean for over 80 years.
It operate
across a wide spectrum of industries, namely
automotive/industrial equipment and support
services; energy; financial and other services;
industrial gases; information technology and communications
and retail/distribution/logistics.
NEAL & MASSY FACTS:
Highlights of Neal and Massy Holdings Limited and
its subsidiaries for the six-months' period ending
March 31, 2007. One Trinidad dollar is equivalent
to about BDS 32 cents.
* Profits after taxation - TT$172.18 million (BDS
$57.39 million) in 2007, compared with TT$128.62
million (BDS $42.87 million) for the review period
last year.
* Earnings per share rose to TT$1.80 compared
to TT$1.36 for the review period last year.
*
The company approved payment of an interim dividend
of TT36¢ compared with TT31¢ last year.
* Current assets for the company stood at TT$1.9
billion (BDS$636.50 million) for the review period
this year, compared with TT$1.8 billion (BDS$600.04
million) last year.
* Neal & Massy holds 23 per cent of BS&T's
total shares.
BS&T
FACTS:
Highlights of Barbados Shipping & Trading Company Limited, and its subsidiaries
for the six months' period ending March 31, 2007.
*
Profits after taxation - $26.85 million in 2007,
up by 20.5 per cent from 2006 when figures stood
at $22.28 million
*
Earnings per share rose to 32.6¢ per the
period, compared with 26.6¢ for the review
period last year.
*
The company declared a half-year dividend of
nine cents per share.
*
Current assets for the company stood at $387.05
million.
* BS&T holds three per cent of Neal & Massy's total shares.
Petroleumworld
20th May, 2007
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Petroleumworld. All Rights Reserved.
