the war is over:let the battle begin

From SMH 7.5.08

Gold Fields' purchase of shares in Conquest is the signal for a fight of a different sort.

THE war for Conquest Mining's shares is over. Let the court battles begin.

It appears the Netherlands-based predator, Gold Fields, has swallowed the contested stake in Conquest held by its managing director, John Terpu. His stake was seized by ANZ, one of three banks to take the stock of all those poor sods who took what they thought was a margin loan through Opes Prime.

Terpu is one of the poorest of poor sods. He had 15.3 million shares caught out when Opes Prime collapsed, worth about $6.4 million at the share price then of 42c. These holdings were used to secure a $472,000 margin loan through Opes Prime.

On Friday, ANZ said it had sold its remaining shares in Conquest, at a steep discount of 35c to current prices of more than 50c. (In keeping with ANZ's shambolic record on Opes Prime-related substantial shareholder notices, it said it sold 14.4 million shares and another 850,000 that had not previously been disclosed.)

On Thursday Gold Fields said it had bought the 14.4 million shares and that the transaction occurred on April 29. ANZ said it occurred on April 30.

Conquest is now in a court battle with ANZ about the damage that the seizure of what used to be part of a blocking stake has caused.

Terpu had been hoping ANZ would hold off on the share sale until the case was resolved.

Melewar Steel Ventures - the Malaysian company that is party to Conquest's action against ANZ - cannot be too optimistic about ANZ showing mercy on the 32 million shares Melewar used to hold in Gindalbie.