PACPO Holdings and the Hongkong Building and Loan Agency (HKBLA), takeover targets for which bids collapsed two weeks ago, are again the subject of takeover talks. Both companies said their controlling shareholder had been approached by an unnamed third party and that there was the possibility of a change of control and general offer, although ''negotiations are at a preliminary stage''. China Strategic was negotiating with the eventual controlling shareholder of the companies in a planned $170 million deal until January 18, when five of the eight banks behind a $435 million loan facility to HKBLA objected to the change of control, forcing China Strategic to pull out. A manager at Schroders, the leading bank in the syndicate, yesterday said that unless the takeover bid was made in a completely different way, any new bidder would have to satisfy the same panel of banks. A spokesperson for Pacific Concord, controlling shareholder of Pacpo with a 69.44 per cent shareholding, refused to say yesterday whether the discussions were with China Strategic. Pacific Concord owns its stake in Pacpo, a food and finance group, through its subsidiary Redhill. Pacpo in turn owns 67.6 per cent of HKBLA, whose main business is providing mortgage finance. Pacpo's shares yesterday rose 9.5 per cent to $3.45, a rise of 30 cents. HKBLA's shares rose 8.2 per cent to $17.20, a rise of $1.30. The general offers which were part of China Strategic's deal were priced at $3.82 and $20.43 respectively.
