New Zealand’s Graeme Hart is reported to be planning to sell a chunk of Carter Holt Harvey. Source: Stuff NZ
It is too early to say whether his plans to partially float his building firm Carter Holt Harvey could be a flier, according to a fund manager.
Hart plans to sell up to 60% of Carter Holt Harvey in a deal worth up to NZ$1 billion, Radio New Zealand reported.
The packaging tycoon reportedly intends to list the business on both the New Zealand and Australian stock exchanges in June or July. But, Harbour Asset Management managing director Andrew Bascand said investors would need to bear in mind it is a different company to the one that was last listed on the stock market in 2006.
Harbour would have a good look at the opportunity once more information was available, but would need to assess it from scratch.
“Everyone has a burning desire to talk about it, but it is too early in the process. We haven’t even seen documentation yet,” Mr Bascand said.
“It is a bit of a different company to what it was, so you’d have to start from scratch and then consider where we are in the building cycle compared to when it was last listed,” he said. “The key question is ‘are you at peak earnings or is there still some more to come?’.”
Carter Holt Harvey is made up of timber products businesses Woodproducts Australia and Woodproducts New Zealand, and Carters Building Supplies, which together employ 5000 people.
Hart has been selling off parts of the Carter Holt empire since his Rank Group bought it for NZ$3.6b in 2006, when it also included forests and farms.
A year ago he unloaded the pulp, paper and packaging business to two Japanese firms for approximately US$770 million (NZ$1.03b).
Credit Suisse and First New Zealand Capital were working on pitching the deal to investors, Radio NZ said.
Business analyst Rod Oram told the station the shares could interest investors if priced right, but was sceptical about how attractive the float would be.
“Hart has picked out the best of the business; he’s squeezed those assets the best he’s going to. Therefore it raises questions about what’s really left for new investors,” said Mr Oram.
Mr Oram said the company’s employees should not be too worried about the prospect of a float.
“From an employee point of view, you’d have to think there’s not a great deal more that they can do … It’d be hard to imagine there would be a lot more restructuring still to do,’ he said.
Mr Hart was ranked number 195 on Forbes magazine’s annual rich list, with an estimated fortune of US$7b.
