The New Zealand Herald

"Rainbow sat tight until March 1986, when Heatley picked up *The New Zealand Herald* and saw that Rothmans had announced the sale of its New Zealand tobacco business to Rothmans Holdings Ltd of Australia for $80 million. Heatley knew that Rothmans’ New Zealand tobacco business was making $24 million a year so it did not make sense to him that the company was proposing to sell it for only $80 million. In addition, to his mind, the company was going about the sale in a Mickey Mouse way by not first seeking shareholder approval. ‘To this day I think the deal was essentially designed to screw the other shareholders in New Zealand. Anyway, that’s how I saw it. So I thought, This isn’t good, they’re trying to sell a key asset at a lower price than, in my opinion, it’s worth.’ Heatley called Rainbow’s lawyers, who advised him that Rothmans’ move was not illegal. But he was riled. It occurred to him that if Rainbow made an offer for the New Zealand tobacco business, then Rothmans Industries’ shareholders would have a legal right to know about it. That might thwart the proposed deal with Rothmans Australia."

"Another of Rainbow’s purchases, for a brief time, was a small stake in ⁠*The New Zealand Herald* publisher Wilson & Horton. Heatley had always been interested in the media from a consumer’s perspective and now thought he would like to be a long-term shareholder in the publishing company and get to know its chairman, Michael Horton. Heatley thought there could potentially be a good partnership. He liked publishing, liked the media and respected what Wilson & Horton had achieved. But after buying 3 per cent at a good price, no overture was forthcoming from Wilson & Horton. ‘I think Michael took the view that there was no way he was going to let me in.’ After a short time, Rainbow sold its stake and moved on to other investments.⁠"

"Rainbow sat tight until March 1986, when Heatley picked up *The New Zealand Herald* and saw that Rothmans had announced the sale of its New Zealand tobacco business to Rothmans Holdings Ltd of Australia for $80 million. Heatley knew that Rothmans’ New Zealand tobacco business was making $24 million a year so it did not make sense to him that the company was proposing to sell it for only $80 million."

"To set up towers in remote high spots was not only beyond Sky’s financial resources but the process of getting resource consents would have taken years, quite aside from the physical and financial challenges of getting power and infrastructure to the difficult-to-access sites. In that field, TVNZ subsidiary Broadcast Communications Ltd (BCL) literally held the high ground. It had the towers and access agreements already in place with landowners to allow it to reach and maintain the towers. At considerable cost, Sky partnered with BCL. In February 1989, *The New Zealand Herald* announced that Sky and TVNZ’s broadcasting services division had agreed ‘a multi-million-dollar contract’ for the state broadcaster to provide ‘a total transmission service for Sky Media’.[1](private://read/01jectdbce729daxqkxt7cbe8r/#mn18)"