The following article is in The Age today and I understand the...

The following article is in The Age today and I understand the Daily Telegraph also has the story today.

"ASIC ends probe of Sydney Gas claim
January 25, 2006 - 7:29PM
The corporate regulator has decided not to make any further investigation into Sydney Gas' claims that two of its major shareholders acted in concert to take control of the company.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) said there was limited evidence that the Corporations Act had been breached by the shareholders.

ASIC was looking into allegations by Sydney Gas that two shareholders were acting in concert and had breached the 20 per cent takeover threshold.

But the regulator said the two shareholders actually voted differently at Sydney Gas' annual general meeting in November 2005.

"Together with the difficulty of proving that parties are acting in concert, these developments led ASIC to the conclusion that to make any further inquiries would be tantamount to a fishing expedition," ASIC acting chairman Jeremy Cooper said.

"As such, we took the view that taking action was not warranted on the available evidence."

After the directors of Sydney Gas made the allegations last December they resigned en masse, saying they would rather voluntarily leave than be hoisted out by the rebel shareholders, calling for their removal.

The shareholders were understood to be concerned about a deal between Australian Gas Light Company and Sydney Gas.

AGL took out an option to underwrite $30 million of convertible notes should Sydney Gas not be able to repay those debts.

This week Queensland Gas Company launched an $88 million takeover bid for Sydney Gas.

The takeover bid offered a solution for the looming repayment of $30 million worth of convertible notes Sydney Gas held, but AGL retains its option over the notes.

Sydney Gas is still considering the offer."

What a pack of dopes the previous management led by Knight and Purcell now look!!

They wasted shareholders money on high powered lawyers for NO REASON. That plus having SGL suspended for two weeks.

They have harmed SGL and should now be accountable.

And QGC (according to The Australian) is now using the team who were advising the previous Sydney Gas board - Paul Binstead of merchant bank Lazards and Tony Hartnell and Jeremy Kriewaldt of law firm Atanaskovic Hartnell. It is also using Andrew Purcell, who quit as Sydney Gas chief executive when the board walked, as a consultant.

This is a blatant conflict of interests in my opinion.

Does QGC have a Corporate Goverance policy?

No wonder the shareholders called for them to be replaced.

Time ASIC turned its' big guns a bit further north. Wouldn't be hard to find a few targets.

Go SGL
2 for 1 - dreamin!