Marlborough Lines Offer to Horizon Rejected

19 October 2009

The offer of Marlborough Lines to purchase 51 percent of the shares of Horizon has been rejected by the Eastern Bay Energy Trust.

In response, Mr David Dew, Chairman of Marlborough Lines, said:

“Marlborough Lines made its offer to purchase shares in Horizon at a price which was fair and generous, based as it was on Horizon’s public disclosures to the market about expected profit levels.

“We expected that Horizon, being a listed company and subject to continuous disclosure obligations, would have disclosed to the market all material information about its profit expectations. In the period between the Horizon AGM in August and the Marlborough Lines offer in September, remarkably the Horizon directors discovered a 33 percent increase in expected profits for 2010.

“The Independent Adviser appointed by Horizon has accepted this increase in profits as being both likely and sustainable. We believe it is neither. Marlborough Lines believes that Horizon will struggle to meet its newly found profit expectations, particularly given the regulated environment in which lines businesses operate, a factor which was not taken into account by the Independent Adviser”.

ENDS

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