CSR SELLS OIL/GAS INTERESTS, BIDS TO EXTEND SUGAR
CSR Ltd has made a bold move in selling
its oil and gas interests for almost a billion dlrs and
ploughing 150 mln into its traditional sugar business, share
analysts said.
    CSR said it had dropped plans to float its oil and gas
interests held in the Delhi Australia Fund and would instead
sell them to Exxon Corp unit Esso Exploration and Production
Australia Inc for 985 mln dlrs.
    In a twin announcement CSR, already Australia's largest
sugar refiner, made a 2.20 dlr a share bid for the 70 pct it
does not already hold in Pioneer Sugar Mills Ltd.
    A float of part of Delhi would have raised between 200 and
300 mln dlrs, but in opting to sell outright CSR had given
itself the cash to all but eliminate its debt and embark on an
ambitious expansion programme in its best-performing divisions
of sugar and building products, analysts said.
    The Pioneer Sugar investment would give CSR by far the
largest stake in Australia's 850 mln dlr a year sugar industry
and access to some of the best sugar properties and mills in
the country, they said. Pioneer Sugar was expected to recommend
acceptance of the bid, through which CSR would benefit from the
bottoming out of a cyclical downturn in sugar prices.
 REUTER
