	csr says it is proceeding with offer for monier csr ltd csra s intends to proceed with its planned bid for building materials group monier ltd mnra s despite the counter bid from equiticorp tasman ltd etl csr executive director gene herbert told reuters etl said today it would offer dlrs each for monier s issued capital of mln shares plus a share alternative this compares with a dlr cash element in csr s proposed bid the proposed offer by etl controlled by new zealand entrepreneur allan hawkins came after it built up a pct stake in monier in a mln dlr share raid in recent days herbert said britain s redland plc rdld l which holds just under pct of monier still supported the csr bid and had told csr it is not a seller he said redland wanted to maintain and build on its operations in australia and the u s where monier has built up a strong presence notably in roofing tile manufacture the csr offer contains a put and call option agreement with redland this enables redland to accept the csr bid within six months of its close or to lift its stake to pct in the same period and to run monier as a joint venture with csr csr has said that redland will take up the second option etl has declined to say why it intervened in monier beyond describing it as a long term investment etl would bring no synergies to monier unlike csr which is a leader in building materials herbert said we fit better with monier he said csr has said that it will concentrate development on its core businesses of sugar and building materials after its moves into energy several years ago asked what he thought etl s bid sought to achieve herbert said i m puzzled as to what hawkins strategy is one has to wonder if monier is the main target herbert said csr had no plans to raise its bid and said a higher price would be difficult to justify on fundamentals monier was trading at dlrs when csr launched its original bid of or times earnings in late april the shares closed at dlrs today down cents on yesterday after etl withdrew on reaching the top foreign shareholding level permitted without foreign investment review board firb approval its bid is subject to firb approval herbert also said that institutions which are more likely to accept a share alternative than cash would have to judge the respective values of etl and csr shares etl is the third group to become involved in a possible uisition of monier this year redland held discussions on a possible takeover before the csr bid emerged but the negotiations foundered on the price share analysts said that for this reason they did not think etl s intervention would flush out a full redland bid although monier s ultimate fate rests in its hands redland is still in the driving seat said tim cohen of ord minnett ltd adding that redland would be happier having csr as a partner in running monier than etl monier s independent directors have recommended etl s bid reuter 
