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Downer sold by Brierleys to Paul-Y of Bermuda and Hong Kong One of our major construction companies, Downer Group Ltd is being sold by Brierley Investments Ltd to Paul Y-ITC Construction Holdings Ltd. Paul Y-ITC is incorporated in Bermuda but publicly listed in Hong Kong. It is owned 45% by International Tak Cheung Holdings Ltd of Bermuda and 20% by Cheung Hong (Holdings) Ltd of Hong Kong and includes some Chinese shareholding (see below).
The price is HK$245 million (NZ$54.7 million) by way of a share issue by Paul Y-ITC which will leave BIL holding 10.8% of Paul Y-ITC’s issued capital. NZPA reported (e.g. Press, “Brierley puts Downer with Hong Kong firm”, 8/6/94, p.32) that BIL would use cash assets from Downer to buy a further 52 million Paul Y-ITC shares in addition to the 98 million acquired in the sale. It has ended up with 159 million shares, or 17.5% of Paul Y-ITC (Press, “Brierley Downer sale complete”, 5/7/94, p.38). BIL has retained Downer’s smaller non-construction companies, and guaranteed Downer’s existing contracts would achieve a certain margin. Downer’s contracts included some for the Chek Lap Kok Airport near Hong Kong, lead contractor and project manager for the $HK3.5 billion Lantau Island expressway, and construction of a tuna-canning factory in Papua New Guinea. Cheung Kong is “the flagship company of Li Ka Shing.” Shougang Concord, the investment arm of Shougang, the Beijing steel conglomerate, is another shareholder in Paul Y-ITC. New Zealand Aluminium Smelters (U.K./Japan) expanding Tiwai Point smelter New Zealand Aluminium Smelters Ltd (owned U.K./Australian company, C.R.A. and Sumitomo of Japan) is setting up a $200,000 subsidiary, Smelter Development Ltd to expand its Tiwai Point smelter in an upgrade costing “in the order of $400 million, approximately $240 million of which is to be spent in New Zealand.” The expansion was publicly committed to only after trans-Tasman armtwisting and threats against governments on each side of the Tasman, to try to get cheaper power out of them. Their power contract was renegotiated by the New Zealand government and despite the opposition of the Ministers of Environment and of Energy, Cabinet agreed to an agreement that is likely again to give Comalco power at highly subsidised and secret rates. Damba office equipment taken over by CHG of Malaysia Office equipment manufacturer, Damba Holdings Ltd is being taken over by Malaysian company CHG Industries Ltd. The 57% holding owned by the Van Dam family of Aotearoa is being sold to CHG for $4,268,636. Damba had a factory in Perth which was closed after losses in Australia, and the new owners were considering closing a plant in Sydney. (Press, “Damba to increase output”, 3/8/94, p.33.) NRG reinsurance of Netherlands taken over by Group HDI of Germany NRG Victory Life Reinsurance Australia Ltd is being bought by a German company from a Netherlands company, Nederlanden Group NV for $20 million. The new owners are Hannover Re and Eisen Und Stahl Re, subsidiaries of the Group HDI Haftpflichtverband der Deutschen Industrie VAG. They are “part of a global insurance and reinsurance group. The acquisition is part of a strategy to develop the life reinsurance business worldwide … and may be used as a springboard for development into the broader Asian region.” NRG is also issuing a further $60 million worth of shares to the two companies in order to enable it to redeem redeemable preference shares held by its previous owner, NRG Victory Australia Ltd. Retrospective approval for Hong Kong company to buy 36% of U-Bix Retrospective approval is given to share purchases purely for capital appreciation, over a long period. Global Asset Management (HK) Ltd, a subsidiary of Global Asset Management Ltd of Hong Kong, to buy 35.61% of the share capital of U-Bix Business Machines Ltd for $25,978,034.
Of the remaining shareholding, 29% is owned by Maori interests (Independent, “The Renaissance of Maori Commerce?”, Rebecca MacFie, 8/4/93). U-Bix sells photocopiers and telephone systems. Half of Kiwi Cable taken by UIH New Zealand Inc of U.S.A. Kiwi Cable Co Ltd, owned by Todd International Ltd of the U.S.A., is being half taken over by UIH New Zealand Inc for U.S.$6 million.
Tegel, owned by Heinz of U.S.A., buys part of Papakura road Tegel Food Ltd, a subsidiary of Watties Ltd, itself owned by H.J. Heinz Company of the U.S.A., is buying part of a road from the Papakura District Council. It “adjoins land already owned by Tegel” in Papakura, Auckland, and the Council intended to close the road. The land is of 1668 square metres and is being sold for “$12 -$15,000“. Thomson of Canada buys Brooker and Friend, law publisher The giant Thomson Corporation of Canada subsidiary, Sweet and Maxwell (NZ) Ltd, is buying law publishing firm, Brooker and Friend Ltd, for an amount that was initially suppressed, but released on appeal in July 1995: $15,000,000. In 1986, Thomson was the 7th largest publishing company in the world with $US2.5 billion in revenue, $2.7 billion in assets, and 20,700 employees (“Foreign Direct Investment and Transnational Corporations in Services”, U.N. Centre on Transnational Corporations, New York, 1989, p.204). Westpac sets up Lease discounting subsidiary Westpac Banking Corporation is setting up a company, Westpac Lease Discounting -NZ- Ltd for ” in excess of $10 million” to “facilitate a structured finance transaction involving the discounting of leases.” Japanese buyer of 21 hectares of Tauranga land for housing subdivision A Japanese resident, Saburo Okakura, is buying 80% of Horne Pryde Ltd from Monad Leisuretime Ltd of Aotearoa for $800, which apparently buys him 20.7 hectares of land in Cheyne Road, Tauranga which is proposed to be developed into a residential subdivision of approximately 200 sections. Mr Okakura apparently has the money to do the development. The SEABIL Group of Hong Kong is reorganising after its formation and in preparation for its public float (see May decisions). Two subsidiaries are being set up: Chiraz Properties Ltd and Thersites Properties Ltd. Others may be also being set up without making it to the OIC: these make it because the cost of establishing them exceeds $10 million each. One is owned by SEABIL (NZ) Holdings Ltd, the other by SEABIL (NZ) Ltd, both 70% owned by SEA Holdings Ltd of Hong Kong and 30% owned by Brierley Investments Ltd of Aotearoa. At the same time, the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Ltd of Hong Kong has been given the right to take over a number of SEABIL’s assets as security over a loan for $89.1 million. The assets are the shares in subsidiary, Glaive Properties Ltd, and property owned by Gujrat Properties Ltd, Isonzo Properties Ltd, Jattoo Properties Ltd, Mantua Properties Ltd, Mileto Properties Ltd, Ngapur Properties Ltd, Naseby Properties Ltd, and Lepidus Properties Ltd. Cathedral Square Housing Corp building, Christchurch, to Jegual of Singapore A Singaporean company, Jegual Investments Ltd, is buying the 12-storey Housing Corporation building at 14 Cathedral Square, Christchurch for $5,650,000. Its owner wishes to “develop it into a hotel as an investment for his family.” According to the Christchurch Mail (“Another tourist hotel for Square”, 18/8/94, p.1) the hotel will be a 186-room, four-star one. It is the second time the building has been sold this year: it was bought in April by a company controlled by a “retired Christchurch games operator”, Patrick Sloan, who also owns blocks of shops in Riccarton Road and the Main North Road. It has a government valuation of $8.5 million and was sold to Sloan’s company VEF Holdings Ltd (a typographical error in the OIC decisions names it as VEP Holdings Ltd) for $4.3 million. So Sloan has made $1.35 million on the deal in a matter of two months. A number of hotel developments are planned for Christchurch currently – several being conversions of existing buildings. Tiong company (Malaysia) buys 127 ha. land from Housing Corporation Neil International Ltd, a subsidiary of Tiong (Malaysia) owned Neil Holdings Ltd is buying 127 hectares of land in North Shore City, Albany from the Housing Corporation of New Zealand for $21,000,000. It is close to the Albany campus of Massey University and will be subdivided. Singapore/Brunei company buys four ha. Auckland land for townhouses A Singapore/Brunei company, Remuera Park Ltd, is acquiring four hectares of land in Meadowbank, Auckland which it proposes to develop into 57 high quality townhouses spending $17 million in the process. Remuera Park is owned 50% by Mr Yeo of Singapore and 25% each by Messrs Lim and Lim of Brunei. Skellerup buys Smiths Horticultural A Skellerup Group Ltd subsidiary, Viking Smiths Ltd, to be renamed Smiths Horticultural Distributors Ltd is acquiring for $6 million, Smiths Horticultural Distributors Ltd, a private company, whose assets include a peat licence over 83 ha. of rural land on the Hauraki Plains. Smiths have long been a soil and soil mix supply company, the bulk of whose production goes to commercial growers. Skellerup reckon they will complement its existing company, Watkins Home and Garden Products Ltd, which specialises primarily in the distribution of agricultural chemicals and seeds. It is interesting that Skellerup has “approximately 30% overseas ownership spread widely.” The Press reported (“BIL trims Skellerup holding”, 18/2/94) that Brierley Investments Ltd owns 30.3% of Skellerup, having reduced it from 70% after a 30% float last October. Gourmet Paprika of Netherlands leases Helensville land for pepper production In a decision released only in September 1995 after appeal to the Ombudsman, Gourmet Paprika has approval to establish a pepper production business and lease land in Helensville, Auckland. The company has 1,000 shares owned by Paul Martin of Aotearoa (334), and Adri Botman and Ton Zwetsloof of the Netherlands (333 each). The amount of money put into the company by the shareholders is still suppressed. That was released only in October 1996: $600,000.
Internal restructuring Black family restructures interest in Mendip Hills Station In internal restructuring, Mr A.B.S. Black of Australia is buying a 25% interest in the Mendip Hills Station, Canterbury, from his family for $1,551,000. The station is 5966.9 hectares. See May 1994 for further details of this family’s holdings in Aotearoa. Guinness Peat reorganises interest in Medic Aid Guinness Peat Group PLC of the U.K. but owned by Ron Brierley, is shifting its ownership of Medic Aid (through its holding company First Medical Corporation Ltd) from subsidiary Parsifal New Zealand Ltd to another subsidiary, Ithaca Investments Ltd for $4,000,000. The grisly tale of the GPG takeover of Medic Aid was told in the commentary on the April decisions. GPG acquired First Medical by buying Parsifal from a dubious bunch of fly-by-nighters; it is now consolidating by moving its ownership to an existing holding company. Pitman-Moore New Zealand (of U.S.) now owned through Australia Pitman-Moore Australia Holdings Ltd is buying Pitman-Moore New Zealand Ltd from Pitman-Moore International Inc of the U.S.A., its own parent, for A$2.5 million. FAI sells 180 Molesworth St, Wellington to subsidiary And FAI Metropolitan Life Assurance Company of NZ Ltd, of Australia, is selling 180 Molesworth St, Wellington to a subsidiary, Emeltu Ltd for $18,500,000. Another subsidiary, Emelwon Ltd, is buying all the rentals and other rights and benefits of the property for $21,000,000.
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