Australian Court Approves Sims, Hugo Neu Merger Plan

The Supreme Court of New South Wales, Australia, has granted orders approving the merger plan of Sims Group Ltd. and the recycling operations of Hugo Neu Corp.

The new holding company, Sims Co. Ltd. will own 74 percent of the operation, with Hugo Neu owning the other 26 percent. It is expected the newly formed company will be named Sims Group Ltd.

In accordance with the updated key dates schedule announced by Sims earlier this month, ordinary shares in New Sims Group will be allotted to scheme participants on Oct. 31, 2005); and holding statements for the new Sims Group shares issued to scheme participants will be sent on Nov. 6.

Completion of the merger is expected to take place on Oct. 31, 2005.

Sims also reported an after-tax profit of $29.8 million for the first quarter, a sharp decline from last year’s first quarter figure of $58.1 million.

Commenting on the announcement, Group Chief Executive Jeremy Sutcliffe said, “The result is consistent with our previous market guidance that earnings would be approximately $30m. A contraction in ferrous margin accounted for almost the entire difference between this quarter’s earnings and last year’s record first quarter.”

“Encouragingly, however, earnings were ahead of the company’s budget, on the back of a pickup in ferrous prices in late August/September. Ferrous volumes were largely in line with expectation and high base metal terminal prices led to a strong non ferrous result. Profit before interest and tax from our global non ferrous trading operations was up 31 percent.