MINNOWS SWALLOWING UP THE WHALES When the Perth tycoon Robert Holmes
a Court launched a surprise bid for A$10 billion Broken Hill Proprietary
in 1983 through an unknown and minuscule company called Wigmores, he
ushered in the most frenetic stage in what had already become the latest
Australian corporate craze - takeovers.
The Holmes a Court tilt at BHP -- where he now speaks for a
menacing 29% of the capital -- has for the past year brought takeovers
almost nightly into the living rooms of most Australians. The faces of
Holmes a Court and fellow raiders John Elliott. Alan Bond and Ron
Brierley, unknown a year ago, have become standard news fare.
The BHP bid, dragging on amid a wave of other major takeovers, has
changed the Australian corporate terrain for ever. Never before have
acquisitions been subject to so much public scrutiny. Federal
government hearings and a two-month public...
