| Tue 16 Nov 2004, 15:52 | | Harmony accuses Gold Fields of spying |
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Harmony accuses Gold Fields of spying
November 16, 2004
By Nicky Smith
Johannesburg - In the most dramatic development yet in Harmony`s all-out fight for Gold Fields, Harmony yesterday accused Gold Fields of having tried to buy bid secrets from a Harmony employee and to corrupt him into becoming a Gold Fields` spy.
`Harmony is outraged by the depths to which the desperate Gold Fields now appears to be stooping,` Harmony said in a statement.
Gold Fields` head of security, Pine Pienaar, was accused of offering `a senior Harmony employee a contract to become an informer, specifically tasked to spy on Harmony`s tactics with regard to Harmony`s offers to Gold Fields`, Harmony said.
Willie Jacobsz, Gold Fields` spokesperson, said the allegation `is absolute nonsense`.
`Let them go to the police and lay a charge and then we will see what this is really all about,` he said, adding this was just the latest instalment in Harmony`s `misinformation campaign`.
Harmony claimed to have a draft of the contract that Gold Fields proposed to the Harmony employee.
`In a sworn affidavit, the Harmony employee has stated that he was encouraged to conduct these covert operations and to be paid under a false name,` said Jacobsz.
Patrick Lawlor, a communications adviser to Harmony, said he was `not at liberty to give out the employee`s details`.
He did not know how senior the employee was or the amount Gold Fields had allegedly offered.
`On November 8, Pienaar specifically requested the Harmony employee collect any documentation lying around about the deal and he said, `any information on the takeover bid that you get, I would like to have`,` Lawlor said. More information would made available today, he said.
Gold Fields and Harmony have been going at each other hammer and tongs since October 18 when Harmony made its bid to create the world`s largest gold company public.
In other developments yesterday, Ian Cockerill, Gold Fields` chief executive, said its US investors recognised Harmony`s offer as a cleverly designed ambush.
Cockerill spent last week in the US meeting with Gold Fields` North American investors.
`Shareholders are slowly recognising that this [the construction of the early settlement offer] could well disadvantage them. They recognise that this is a cleverly designed ambush,` Cockerill said.
Gold Fields will hold its shareholder meeting today.
Cockerill said the response from this group of shareholders was such that they `certainly are not inclined to tender their shares`.
He had been advising that shareholders reject the offer, but those who found the Harmony offer compelling, he advised to tender their shares on November 26 when the offer closed.
Cockerill did say `lots of things` could still happen between now and that date
