Rubicon’s Special Shareholders’ Meeting Date Set

Rubicon’s Special Shareholders’ Meeting Date Set

Monday 5 August, 2002. Rubicon announced today that its Special Shareholders’ Meeting to approve the sale of most of its Fletcher Challenge Forests (FCF) shareholding and the acquisition of the Tahorakuri forest estate from FCF has been set down for Tuesday 27th August 2002. Shareholder documentation is to be posted to shareholders later this week.

Commenting on Guinness Peat Group’s (GPG) advice to the Company this morning that it would not be voting in favour of the Rubicon transactions, the Chairman of Rubicon, Mr Michael Andrews, said, “Under our agreements with FCF, Rubicon has already undertaken to vote its FCF shares in favour of these transactions, and also to use reasonable endeavours to complete them. We will be fulfilling our obligations.

While we respect GPG’s decision to vote against the proposals, and also the dissenting views of Mr Tony Gibbs and Dr Gary Weiss on the Rubicon Board, nothing has come to the Company’s attention that would change its view, that, there is no better deal likely for Rubicon shareholders than that contained in the conditional agreements that were announced to the NZSE on 17th June this year,” he said.

Mr Andrews added that the Deloitte Corporate Finance independent report on the transactions, which will be released to shareholders as part of the documentation to be sent this week, concludes that “the consideration offered by FFS and SEAWI and the terms and conditions of the Transactions are fair to Rubicon’s shareholders.”

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