Seven-WesTrac Deal Approved

The Federal court has now approved the Seven-Westrac deal. Justice Peter Jacobson was satisfied with the merger and gave three reasons for his ruling:

• He noted that "There's nothing to suggest that the unrelated shareholders or the [preference share] TELYS3 holders voted otherwise than in good faith. Or they cast their vote for any improper purpose. The test of reasonableness appears to be satisfied."
• He said the test of "reasonableness" was satisfied
• ASIC, the corporate regulator had not raised any objection to the merger.

Seven executive director Peter Gammell will be the chief executive of the new combined company to be called Seven Group Holdings. Kerry Stokes who currently owns 49 per cent of Seven and all of WesTrac will own 68 percent of the new entity. Seven Network has business interests in television, magazine, newspaper and digital media assets while WesTrac operates the Caterpillar franchises in Western Australia, NSW and northern China.

Seven (SVN) shares will be suspended tomorrow and trading in Seven Group Holdings (SGH) will begin on a deferred settlement basis on Friday. SGH shares will trade on a normal settlement basis from May 14.