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Business & Eionomics
Shell will not
support BHP
-SYDNEY: Shell Australia Ltd would not sup
port moves to protcct BHP from a takeover by Mr
Robert Holmes a Court's Bell Resources despite the
large amounts of capital jointly invested by Shell
and BHP in the giant North-West Shelf liquefied
natural gas project.
The chairman and chief executive of Shell
Australia. Mr Kcvan Gosper, said that although the
prospect of a takeover was unsettling to Shell, it
would be unfair to its shareholders to defend
another company.
Mr Gosper was speaking in Sydney yesterday at
the issue of the company's 1985 results which
showed a modest 2.9 per cent lift in net earnings
to $66.8 million against a background of continued
poor commodity prices.
BHP and Shell, a subsidiary of British-based
.Shell Petroleum Co Ltd of Britain, have a joint
interest in 80 per ccnt of Woodside Petroleum Ltd
after the two companies launched a joint takeover
bid in April last year.
In the year ended December, 1985, Shell Aus
tralia lifted net earnings to $66.8 million from $64.9
million the previous year on a 19.3 per ccnt lift in
• turnover to $4.96 billion.
; Return on average shareholder funds dropped
to 3.6 per cent from 3.9 per ccnt last year as
improvements in some divisions offset the sharp
downturn in metals and coal production.
Directors described the average return as inade
quate and blamed the protracted downturn in coal,
•alumina and now oil priccs for the poor per
formance.
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