AUSTRALIA'S ORICA TO HELP WITH INCITEC, PIVOT MERGER.

AsiaPulse News, October, 2002

MELBOURNE, Oct 14 Asia Pulse - Chemicals and explosives giant Orica Ltd (ASX:ORI) today announced measures it said would assist in the proposed merger of the Incitec fertiliser business with Pivot.

Orica plans to merge the fertiliser assets of its 77 per cent owned subsidiary Incitec with Pivot, but the deal requires the approval of the competition watchdog and Incitec and Pivot shareholders.

To facilitate the merger, Orica intends to purchase Incitec's industrial chemicals asset.

But Futuris Corp Ltd (ASX:FCL), which has a 21 per cent stake in Incitec, has appointed its own adviser to examine the deal and noted Orica was trying to extract value at the low end of independent valuations.

Orica said today the condition that Orica's full...