As expected, CSR is relying on listing rules which carve out announcing any information which “relates to an incomplete proposal or negotiation which [is] confidential.” Turns out it was not so confidential after all.
CSR CEO Julie Coates AFR
By Wednesday, those discussions would not have been in their childhood. There were plenty of people involved, from Barrenjoey Capital Partners and Lazard’s Australian and European bankers for Saint-Gobain – alongside Corrs Chambers Westgarth – to UBS and Herbert Smith Freehills for CSR.
Saint-Gobain is now undertaking confirmatory due diligence. CSR investors largely expect the bid to be successful. But given it was a real approach – at a big premium – there remain plenty of questions about why the company didn’t notify the ASX well before the information leaked.
“CSR is very comfortable that it has complied with its continuous disclosure obligations,” a defendant said. “There is no requirement to disclose non-binding indicative proposals while they are confidential. As soon as confidentiality was broken by a media leak, CSR acted immediately to request a trading halt and the ASX put the shares in halt.”
