Key Transaction And 9 For 1 Rights Issue

Cabletalk Group Meeting Approves Key Transaction And 9 For 1 Rights Issue

Auckland 22 June 2001 – Shareholders of Cabletalk Group Limited (NZSE CTG), approved the acquisition of Cabletalk Astute Network Services (CANS) and a $5.8 million rights issue at a meeting today.

Shareholders approved the issue of 21,735 million new ordinary shares at $0.50 per share as partial consideration for the purchase. Shareholders also approved a subsequent public offering (SPO) of 11,600,000 new shares at $0.50 per share, comprising of a 9 for 1 renounceable entitlements issue for existing public shareholders. Rights will be able to be traded on the NZSE from 25 June to 11 July. The SPO will open on 25 June and close on 13 July.

Cabletalk is forecasting an after tax profit (prior to goodwill amortisation) of $2.2 million for the current year. This represents a P/E multiple of 8.2 times on the issue price of $0.50 per share.

CANS is a telecommunications network service company formed by the amalgamation of four telecommunications network building and maintenance companies and its acquisition was proposed as Cabletalk’s key transaction under New Capital Markets (NCM) listing rules. On settlement the company will graduate to the main board of the NZSE.

Cabletalk Group’s independent directors, Mr Ross Keenan and Sir Selwyn Cushing, negotiated a purchase price of $15.352 million for CANS (following an independent valuation by PricewaterhouseCoopers), comprising $4.484 million in cash and $10.868 million in new shares.
ENDS

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