Illustration: John Shakespeare
There will be no love lost in the battle for
control of Atlas Iron, but the bidding documents from
Gina Rinehart’s crew suggests the $390 million cash bid is not just an opportunity to rankle her Perth neighbour
Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest.
Twiggy's Fortescue did not say much following Rinehart's offer on Monday, but the two billionaires are obviously at odds over the future of Atlas, having outmuscled last month’s pedestrian offer for the miner from rich lister
Chris Ellison.
To think it was just eight years ago that the buddy billionaires were
chanting "axe the tax" on the back of a flat-bed truck together in retaliation against
Kevin Rudd's mining tax.
But at least we can confirm it was the Atlas offer from Ellison-backed Mineral Resources that kicked off the interest from Rinehart’s flagship group, Hancock Prospecting Pty Ltd (HPPL). Not Twiggy.
According to the documents from the HPPL subsidiary bidding for Atlas, Redstone Corporation Pty Ltd, it was incorporated on April 19 “for the principal purpose of making the offer and acquiring and holding Atlas shares".
This was just 10 days after Ellison’s MinRes announced the scheme of arrangement to acquire Atlas, and well before Twiggy’s Fortescue hit the share register.
And does the document offer any clues as to whether Mrs Rinehart's interests lie with its mining tenements or
port berths at Port Hedland?
The port berths did not get a single mention in the document.
HPPL did mention it would conduct a strategic review should the offer succeed. This includes a review of the “standalone viability” of the current operations including the Mt Webber mine site.
HPPL says if the operations are not viable in their current state it will consider “alternative measures which could achieve such viability, as well as the potential costs associated with the suspension or closure of those activities".
A mine closure could help avoid another ore glut when this mini boom deflates. And even Twiggy might be happy with that outcome.
Atlas’s other iron ore interests in the Pilbara would then be combined with HPPL’s assets in the region, the bid document reports.
But what about the Atlas board?
Redstone's board, which consists of Rinehart lieutenants
Tad Watroba and
Jay Newby, said the plan is to replace the Atlas board with its own nominees from within HPPL.
Surely they can save a spot for former pollie and ex HPPL employee,
Cheryl Edwards, who only joined the Atlas board three years ago.
