Fists, chairs fly as Golden West clash turns violent30th August...

Fists, chairs fly as Golden West clash turns violent

30th August 2008, 10:45 WST



Simmering tensions erupted into violence at a showdown between Golden West Resources and Portman yesterday, with shareholders throwing punches and chairs after a proposed board spill was all but rejected.

Up to a dozen people were thought to have been caught up in the shortlived melee, which exploded in a meeting room at the Parmelia Hilton following the adjournment of an extraordinary meeting of Golden West shareholders.

The brawl, which was broken up with the aid of hotel staff, is believed to be related to a long-running dispute between certain shareholders in Golden West and its one-time hostile suitor, Fairstar Resources. The dispute has included claims of intimidation and standover tactics.

The punch-up had echoes of last year’s fiery annual meeting of Golden West which saw a series of verbal clashes between an angry shareholder and the board.

The die for yesterday’s gathering was cast last month when Portman requested a shareholders meeting to replace two incumbent Golden West directors with its managing director Richard Mehan and former Rio Tinto executive Paul Piercy. Portman also hoped to scuttle Golden West’s acquisition of a package of Mid-West tenements and prevent further dilutive share placements.

The spill bid was characterised by Portman as an attempt to put iron ore experience on the group’s board and by Golden West as a grab for control without paying a takeover premium.

The incumbent Golden West board appears to have won the day, with proxies indicating overwhelming support for the board.

Having unsuccessfully appealed to the WA Supreme Court to adjourn the meeting after learning the bulk of its proxies had been declared invalid, it is understood Portman effectively voted just six million of its 25 million shares.

While the result of the meeting will not be confirmed until early next week, stand-in chairman Martin Bennett from Lavan Legal told shareholders the extra proxies would not have altered the outcome, with nearly 60 million shares cast against each of Portman’s resolutions.

Accordingly, shareholders at the meeting were allowed to vote, though the result will not be known until after a court hearing on Tuesday.

It is unclear how much tighter the vote may have been without Chinese investor Hunan Valin Steel Tube and Wire’s 16 million shares, acquired two weeks ago as part of an offtake deal.

KATE EMERY