	rainbow says brierley upsetting progressive merger rainbow corp ltd said brierley investments ltd bil is trying to disrupt rainbow s planned merger with progressive enterprises ltd rainbow chairman allan hawkins said in a statement in our opinion bil have deliberately tried to create anomalies in the market prices of rainbow and progressive shares since the merger was announced the merger announced in february involves the formation of a new company astral pacific corp ltd which rainbow and progressive shareholders will enter into on a one for one share basis both boards have approved the merger bil has said it was the mystery bidder behind a recent stand in the market for three mln progressive shares we simply regard progressive enterprises shares to be worth approximately twice as much as rainbow shares and do not think the merger as proposed is soundly based bil chief executive paul collins said in an interview in the weekly national business review newspaper published today collins was not immediately available to respond directly to hawkins statement hawkins said the merger has been assessed by independent consultants and declared fair in all respects with benefits to all shareholders we are not going to stand by while other parties distort the picture for their own strategic purposes and distract the market away from the real benefits of the merger he said in our opinion bil s actions are clearly not designed to be in the long term interests of either progressive or rainbow shareholders hawkins said reuter 
