All Topics / Overseas Deals / Billionaire Hart’s Rank Group grabs control of CHH

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  • Profile photo of muppetmuppet
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    @muppet
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    Hi Guys

    Today’s news item regarding Carter Holt Harvey who are Tokoroa’s biggest employer.

    Billionaire Hart’s Rank Group grabs control of CHH

    17.08.05 1.45pm

    By Rachel Pannett

    Rank Group — the investment vehicle of billionaire businessman Graeme Hart — announced today it will launch a full takeover offer for Carter Holt Harvey.

    The investment firm said it has signed a “lock-in agreement” with International Paper — CHH’s 50.5 per cent shareholder — to purchase its stake for $2.50 per share, valuing the stake at $1.65 billion.

    The lock-in agreement requires IP to accept Rank’s takeover offer for its 660,843,571 ordinary shares — which are owned by a holding company Ngahere Aotearoa.

    Under New Zealand takeover rules, a company wanting to bid for a stake of over 20 per cent must make the same offer to all shareholders.

    The offer is expected to be launched within four to six weeks.

    Shares in CHH jumped 13c to $2.59 on the news.

    IP said the offer price of $2.50 was a 30 per cent premium on the level the shares were trading at before its announcement in June that it was considering “strategic alternatives” for its stake.

    The shares were trading at $1.93 on June 27 ahead of the IP announcement. Since then they have attracted the attentions of offshore hedge traders, betting the price would rise in the run up to a sale process.

    IP, the world’s largest paper and forest products company, is paring back its offshore interests in a bid to improve shareholder returns.

    “The timing is now right for us to divest our interests,” IP chairman and chief executive John Faraci said.

    “CHH is a solid business with talented employees. While we remain confident in the company’s leadership and strategy to grow and improve, our companies’ strategies and priorities have evolved and the business climate has changed.”

    Mr Hart, 49, is one of New Zealand’s richest men, with an estimated wealth of around $2 billion. He is a rags-to-riches success story, having left school at 17 to start a one truck cartage firm.

    Much of his wealth was generated through his remarkable turnaround of Australian food group Burns Philp.

    He made the local headlines last week, when his New Zealand Dairy Foods company exchanged brands with dairy giant Fonterra in $754 million deal, which netted him cash of $338 million.

    CHH commercial director Maree Webster said CHH was only told of the bid at the same time the stock exchange was informed today. She said that it was primarily an issue between IP and the buyer.

    “People are still digesting the news,” she said.

    She said chief executive Peter Springford expressed an initial positive view of the bid — that the bidder was New Zealand owned.

    CHH had not had discussion with Mr Hart or Rank Group ahead of the announcement.

    Ms Webster said CHH would request an independent valuation as part of the takeover.

    She said that the appreciation of the New Zealand dollar meant it was a good time for a US company to be selling New Zealand assets.

    IP bought an intial 30 per cent stake in CHH in 1991 and built it up to over 50 per cent in 1995.

    Don’t know how this will affect Tokoroa.

    Regards

    Profile photo of muppetmuppet
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    Hi Guys

    Latest news item.

    Hart deal puts mill towns on edge

    Graeme Hart’s $1.6b swoop wins control of Carter Holt.
    18.08.05
    By Mathew Dearnaley

    Provincial New Zealand is holding its breath over an audacious takeover of Australasia’s largest forest-products conglomerate by this country’s richest man.

    Former tow-truck operator Graeme Hart, who at 49 has amassed an estimated wealth of more than $2 billion, has grabbed a controlling interest in Carter Holt Harvey.

    Mr Hart’s reputation for breaking up conglomerates and laying off workers is making unions nervous, as mill-town mayors reserve judgment on his acquisition.

    Carter Holt Harvey employs more than 6000 workers in New Zealand, as well as several thousand in Australia and Asia, and owns four pulp mills and more than two dozen sawmills and board plants.

    Bancorp managing director Craig Brownie, whose organisation advises on mergers and takeovers, said Mr Hart had a track record, through food giants Burns Philp and Goodman Fielder in Australia, of selling non-performing assets and restructuring management.

    He was also known for cutting employees.

    South Waikato District Mayor Neil Sinclair, whose territory encompasses Tokoroa and the nearby Kinleith pulp and paper mill, said his community would be hungry to hear of the new owner’s intentions.

    “This is the big boys doing things – we will have to watch how it settles down,” he told the Herald.

    But he expressed optimism that, as a New Zealander, Mr Hart would act with the interests of this country’s economy in mind.

    Kawerau Mayor Malcolm Campbell indicated a similar sentiment despite uncertainty about Mr Hart’s aspirations.

    “At the end of the day, if Graeme Hart is there, at least decisions are being made in New Zealand and not in some boardroom in a far-off land where they don’t even know where Kawerau and Tokoroa are.”

    Regional Development Minister Jim Anderton also acknowledged uncertainty about Mr Hart’s intentions but said last night he hoped the new majority owner would develop CHH as a New Zealand business.

    Despite low international prices for raw timber, Mr Anderton said there appeared to be good long-term prospects for value-added forest products, which he hoped Mr Hart would be keen to develop.

    “He seems a smart cookie – and anyone who takes a long-term view of the industry will be looking in the right direction.”

    Union leaders are not so optimistic that Mr Hart will put patriotism ahead of other considerations.

    The deal is one of this country’s largest corporate takeovers, equalled only by that of Contact Energy.

    Mr Hart’s Rank Group announced yesterday that it had paid $1.65 billion to buy out United States-based International Paper’s 50.5 per cent holding for $2.50 a share. It must now offer other shareholders that same price in a full takeover bid potentially worth $3.3 billion.

    Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union secretary Andrew Little said he feared Mr Hart might try to extract short-term value by splitting up his new company, leaving it vulnerable to future downturns.

    Dairy Workers Union secretary James Ritchie, who has lost members in layoffs at NZ Dairy Foods under Mr Hart’s ownership, said it was “nonsense” to expect patriotic considerations to influence his business strategies.

    “Graeme Hart is an international player. He’s a very smart operator. He’s in it for the money.”

    But Mr Ritchie said that as long as managers made enough money, Mr Hart appeared happy to leave them to run the business.

    Kinleith combined unions committee chairman Graeme Holmes said International Paper’s announcement of plans to sell its stake had unsettled some Tokoroa people, but others thought there was little to lose as the mill’s workforce had already shrunk to a bare minimum.

    News source:
    http://www.nzherald.co.nz

    Regards

    Profile photo of westanwestan
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    Thanks Muppet

    good to see you here again, keep us informed on how it will affect Tokoroa.

    I think they own the Paper Mill at Millicent in South Australia also ??

    regards westan

    http://www.nzpropertytogo.com
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    Profile photo of muppetmuppet
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    Hi Westan

    I get into PI a few times a day to keep an eye on this forum.

    Propertytalk is keeping me very busy as well.

    as well as several thousand in Australia and Asia,

    Appears to be that a few thousand Australians are employees of CHH as well.

    General feeling is that Graeme Hart(new owner of CHH) tends to hang on to his new acquistions.

    To gain value from this one he will have to hang on long term until pulp and timber prices go up.

    Regards

    Profile photo of dohickydohicky
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    40 employees layed off at the mill today.

    Profile photo of muppetmuppet
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    Hi dohickey

    The 40 workers laid off were at the plywood mill.
    They were laid off because of a downturn in the Australian housing market not needing so much plywood.

    There is a fair bit of uncertainty in Tokoroa at the moment as nobody knows what Graeme Hart will do with the Kinleith pulp and paper mill.

    About 900 workers work at the mill compared with 250 that were at the plywood mill.

    In its heyday in the early 1980s the Kinleith mill employed about 5000 workers. and after much restructuring this was trimmed down to its present number.

    Houses are still being sold quickly but with the latest news I am not sure what is going to happen.

    Regards

    Join us at http://www.propertytalk.com

    Profile photo of westanwestan
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    Hi Muppet

    have you seen any drop in Prices reflecting the market uncertainty ? It suprises me that buying interest remains strong, i’d have thought many would take a wait and see approach.

    Regards westan

    http://www.nzpropertytogo.com
    check it out !
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    Profile photo of dohickydohicky
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    I’m still buying there, signed my contract this morning :o)

    Profile photo of muppetmuppet
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    Hi Guys

    The latest about Graeme Hart’s buying up off Carter Holt Harvey.

    CHH sales possible after Hart completes review

    01.09.05
    Graeme Hart, New Zealand’s third-richest man, plans a “comprehensive review” of Carter Holt Harvey after his $3.27 billion takeover bid for the nation’s biggest timber company.

    Offer documents filed with the stock exchange yesterday show Hart’s review may result in CHH selling some businesses or making acquisitions.

    The disclosure came as CHH said it would close its remanufacturing plant at Tokoroa with the loss of 24 jobs to cut costs as demand from builders in Australasia slowed.

    Rank Group, Hart’s investment company, offered $2.50 a share for CHH. He has already agreed to pay the same price for a 50.5 per cent stake owned by US giant International Paper.

    “Rank expects it will undertake a comprehensive review of Carter Holt Harvey” after the takeover, the documents say.

    In addition to asset sales, the company may consider selling shares or borrowing more.

    Hart said he would not increase his offer, which is conditional on acquiring at least 50 per cent of the shares. CHH stock rose 1c to $2.54, suggesting Hart will struggle to get most minority shareholders to accept his offer.

    CHH said Grant Samuel & Associates would prepare an independent valuation of the company and an appraisal of the offer. Rank will probably send its offer to shareholders in the second half of this month and CHH directors will make their recommendation about the same time.

    The axing of the 39-year old Tokoroa plant is the latest in a series of closures as CHH cuts costs to counter a slowing in housing construction.

    Only yesterday Statistics New Zealand said new home construction approvals had slumped 15 per cent in July from a year earlier. Excluding apartments, the number of approvals was 22 per cent lower than a year ago. Meanwhile, July approvals in Australia fell 9.5 per cent from a year earlier, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said.

    Output from the Tokoroa plant, which annually makes 3000 cubic meters of product including finger-jointed board for mouldings and door and window surrounds, will be shifted to another plant at Rotorua.

    “Our remanufacturing sites are facing a strong dollar, increased import competition and softening housing markets,” said CHH wood products chief executive Tom Nickels.

    Closure was the best option “given the age of the Tokoroa equipment and the challenging market”.

    The Tokoroa closure could take to 249 the number of workers the company has axed at its sawmills and board plants in Australia and New Zealand this year.
    CHH acquired a 20,000 cubic meters-a-year remanufacturing plant as part of its $165 million purchase of four mills from rival Tenon in April. But Robyn Orchard, of CHH, said the decision to close Tokoroa would have been made anyway.

    News source:
    http://www.nzherald.co.nz

    Regards

    Join us at http://www.propertytalk.com

    Profile photo of kerwynkerwyn
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    Hi Muppet
    That is not good news for Tokaroa. I hope there is no impact on Tok as it is a great little town.
    The trouble with take overs is a new broom tends to sweep clean and they simply do not care how many people they hurt.
    Kerwyn

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