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Ms Dixon was raped and murdered on her walk home from a comedy show in the Melbourne

CBD last Tuesday night. A passer-by discovered her body in the middle of the soccer pitch on
Wednesday morning.
On Monday morning, firefighters were forced to remove paint markings from the memorial after
they were discovered by police during a routine patrol about 3.50am.

AWorld Cup countdown: Sorting wheat


from the chaff
By Michael Lynch
9 June 2018 — 5:22pm
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Billionaire Rinehart offers $390m for


junior iron ore miner
By Darren Gray
Updated18 June 2018 — 1:46pmfirst published at 10:22am
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Billionaire Gina Rinehart has thrown her hat in the ring to buy mining minnow
Atlas Iron. But rival Fortescue, which holds a 19.9 per cent stake in Atlas, is
not walking away, with chief executive Elizabeth Gaines saying the miner was
"assessing our options".

Redstone Corp, a wholly owned subsidiary of Mrs Rinehart's Hancock


Prospecting, on Monday made a cash takeover bid pitched at 4.2¢ a share,
valuing the company at $389.7 million.
Gina Rinehart has lobbed a bid for Atlas Iron.
Photo: supplied
Mrs Rinehart last week revealed she had built a 19.96 per cent stake in Atlas
after fellow billionaire Andrew "Twiggy" Forrest's Fortescue Metals Group
amassed a similar stake.
It remains to be seen how Mr Forrest will respond to Mrs Rinehart's latest
move, whose bid trumps the $280 million scrip-based takeover proposed by
Mineral Resources in April.

In a statement, Ms Gaines kept Fortescue's options open, saying: “Fortescue


notes today’s announcement from Atlas Iron. We will continue to assess our
strategic options and do not propose to make any further comment at this
time.”
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Atlas was placed in a trading halt on Monday morning before details of the
Redstone offer emerged. When trading resumed, Atlas shares rose 22.2 per
cent to close at 4.4¢. Shares in Fortescue eased 1.3 per cent to close at $4.65.

The Redstone offer is not conditional on due diligence, financing, regulatory


approval or further internal approvals.
Atlas said its board would evaluate the bid and give shareholders a
recommendation "in due course". The Atlas board advised shareholders to
"take no action in relation to the Hancock offer until they receive further
advice" from it.

In a statement, Hancock Prospecting said the offer was 41 per cent higher
than Mineral Resources' proposal as at June 15 and gave investors greater
certainty as it was in cash.

"The directors of Redstone consider that the all‐cash offer, with its premium
pricing and low conditionality, represents a significantly superior proposition
to the [Mineral Resources] proposal and that the offer should therefore be
viewed as a compelling opportunity for Atlas shareholders," Hancock said.

Tad Watroba, exceutive director of Hancock, said Atlas Iron's assets had long-
term synergies with Hancock's.

"There is potential to unlock value through the future development of


Atlas resources as part of our wider system of operations," he said.

"If we obtain control of Atlas, we intend to conduct a strategic review to better


understand the most appropriate time and means to develop and integrate
Atlas into the existing operations of the Hancock Group."

Mr Watroba said the Hancock group produced iron ore priced off the 62 per
cent iron content index.

Mineral Resources said in a statement it was "considering its position and will
advise its intentions in due course".

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Mr Watroba said: "Some of the Atlas deposits contain elements that have
complementary characteristics providing optionality and opportunity to
improve the non‐iron elements of ore quality further.
"The remainder of the Atlas resources could serve to extend the life of existing
Hancock iron ore interests."

In its bidder's statement, Redstone said that in the short term, it intended for
Atlas to keep operating in the same manner it had over the past year. It said its
strategic review would "consider the disposal of assets which are not
considered to be of long term strategic value" to the Hancock group.

Redstone said it would assess the ongoing operational needs of Atlas in its
strategic review. "This may lead to the maintenance of the current workforce
or a need for greater or fewer numbers of employees within the existing Atlas
business. Should the strategic review result in the need for fewer Atlas
employees, the HPPL (Hancock) group will seek to redeploy those Atlas
employees into other parts of the HPPL group's business, where practicable."

Redstone said there were compelling reasons for Atlas shareholders to accept
the offer, including that it was "100 per cent cash, which will be paid to you
promptly", the offer price delivered a premium to Atlas shareholders, the offer
had a low level of conditionality, and Atlas shareholders would receive certain
value for their shares at a fixed cash price.

If Atlas shareholders did not accept the offer Redstone said they faced a
number of consequences including uncertainty about the ongoing viability of
Atlas, uncertainty about whether the Mineral Resources proposal could be
completed on its current terms, the price of Atlas shares could fall, and
shareholders could be left as minority shareholders of Atlas with limited
influence on the miner. Redstone said the latter would happen if it acquired
more than 50 per cent of Atlas shares, but not enough to proceed with
compulsory acquisition.

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