ELDERS HAPPY TO LEAVE CARLING SHARES OUTSTANDING Elders IXL Ltd <ELXA.S> says it is happy to leave preferences shares of brewer Carling O'Keefe Ltd outstanding after an undisclosed bidder made an offer to acquire all of Carling's outstanding preferred stock. Elders, which owns 100 pct of Carling's outstanding common shares, previously proposed to redeem the 433,745 Carling series A preferred shares at 33.50 Canadian dlrs each and redeem the 386,662 series B preferreds at 40 dlrs a share. The series A and B preferred shares carry no vote while dividends are paid. Elders says neither it nor Carling knows the identity of the bidder for Carling's preferred shares. On May 29, the bidder offered to acquire the Carling preferred for 36 dlrs for each series A and 40.50 dlrs for each series B share. Elders said leaving the Carling preferred shares outstanding will not affect ongoing plans of the company. Series B preferred shareholders had previously rejected Carling's proposal to redeem the shares and a series A preferred shareholders meeting was adjourned to June 12.