Multiplex family sell out for $1.2 billion

[Howie]

Wonder what implications this would have for their Adelaide projects?

Multiplex family sell out for $1.2 billion
12th June 2007, 7:15 WST

Multiplex, the Perth company known around the world as The Well Built Australian, effectively fell under foreign control last night for the first time in its 45 years after the three children of late founder John Roberts cashed in their 26 per cent shareholding for almost $1.2 billion in cash.

In a deal timed almost a year to the day after 72-year-old John Roberts passed away at his Egerton property in the Swan Valley, his sons Andrew, 40, and Tim, 36, and their 31-year-old sister Denby Macgregor sold their controlling stake to Canadian private equity group Brookfield Asset Management.

Brookfield is expected to announce today that it will extend the same cash offer — equivalent to about $5.15 a share — to all Multiplex shareholders in the takeover bid, which values the company at about $4.3 billion.

The offer is expected to comprise $5 a share in line with Friday’s final sale quote plus an entitlement to a final dividend for the 2006-07 financial year, which is expected to be 10¢ a share.

Brookfield is understood to have trumped an indicative cash and scrip offer contemplated by property group Mirvac but never tabled.

MARK DRUMMOND
CHIEF REPORTER