Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Pastimes : Ask Mohan about the Market -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: IceShark who wrote (17068)	11/11/1998 4:17:00 PM
From: Link Lady	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 18056

Gold vs. the euro Baron vies for vast stake in Homestake cbs.marketwatch.com Gold vs. the euro Baron vies for vast stake in Homestake By Thom Calandra, CBS MarketWatch Last Update: 6:15 PM ET Nov 10, 1998 SAN FRANCISCO (CBS.MW) -- It's not every day a rich German baron seeks to buy a vast stake in one of the oldest gold companies in the United States, all because of the euro. Baron August Von Finck, who with his brother Wilhelm Von Finck is worth about $4.5 billion, already owns 14.2 percent of San Francisco's Homestake (HM). Von Finck managed to get one of his representatives on the board of Homestake, one of the oldest continually traded companies on the New York Stock Exchange. Now, say Homestake executives and Securities & Exchange Commission filings, August wants to raise his stake to 25 percent and land another board seat. That's a bold step, given gold's lackluster price in a world where investors and central bankers would rather trade derivatives than bars of the metal. Von Finck's family made its money by amassing large stakes in drug company Merck (MRK) and insurance giant Allianz. The family owns pieces of German brewer Löwenbräu and Swiss hotel and restaurant chain Mövenpick, according to Forbes magazine. Von Finck is well known for not wanting to be well known. He hates publicity. His secretary, reached in Munich this week, was pleasant but firm. "Mr. Von Finck is abroad," she said. "He will be a long time abroad." She declined to take this writer's name and phone number. Translation: No comment. Still, Homestake CEO Jack Thompson has met with Von Finck. Homestake vice president of investor relations Steve Orr, who has been with the company for 28 years, says Von Finck and his representative, accountant Gerhard Ammann, will bring a global perspective to Homestake's operations. After all, Homestake runs mines in Australia, Canada and the United States and has interests around the world. Its stock, on the NYSE since 1879, is also traded on the Australian Stock Exchange, in Switzerland and on the over-the-counter markets in Frankfurt, Germany and Paris. Poison or gold? Orr at Homestake says Von Finck and Homestake's board are negotiating a way for the baron to raise his take to 25 percent without triggering a poison pill. "He has requested that we waive the poison pill," said Orr. "He wants to invest about 1 billion deutsche marks." At current Homestake prices, that would give Von Finck a quarter of all the company's shares, which are worth a total of $2.5 billion. The poison pill, adopted earlier this decade, penalizes shareholders who go above the 15 percent threshold. Orr says Von Finck "is a bit of a gold bug and an eccentric. He's doing this as a hedge. He doesn't believe in the euro." The euro, a unified currency for many European nations, including Germany, will debut in January 1999. The new currency is the subject of much debate across Europe, in part because of the strict fiscal requirements that nations must meet if they are to stay in the "euro" club. No one but a gold bug -- someone who sees fiscal crisis in coming years -- would make such a large bet on gold. The metal, which traditionally has been a haven in times of turmoil, is flirting with 19-year lows. The December futures contract traded in New York (GC=Z8) sells for about $293 an ounce