By James Atkinson
Coopers today declared it is now in a stronger than ever position to ward off future takeover attempts, and revealed Lion Nathan's failed 2005 bid could have cost both parties in excess of $30 million combined.
Coopers chairman and marketing director, Glenn Cooper, today said that 75 per cent of the company's shareholders would have to vote to change its constitution to allow another takeover attempt to proceed.
At an LMAA breakfast in Sydney, he reflected on the statement inserted into Coopers' constitution as a result of the Lion ordeal, which ended the takeover attempt and prevented other breweries from owning Coopers shares.
"Are we takeover-proof? You can't say you're totally takeover-proof, but we're in a stronger position," Cooper mused.
"For Coopers to be taken over, 75 per cent of shareholders have to vote to reverse that clause – so we're in a pretty good position.
"We learned a lot out of it and I think Coopers became very strong after that point," he said.
In a separate interview, managing director and chief brewer Dr Tim Cooper told TheShout that there were "no winners" out of Lion's takeover attempt.
"[It was] a big waste of money," he said.
"I heard on the grapevine that Lion Nathan spent something like $25 million trying to do it, and it certainly cost us $8 million to defend ourselves."
"All our advice is saying no-one will come near you again because they realise how hard it was for Lion Nathan," Dr Cooper said.