Mainland deal worth $285m: OIO
Formerly secret prices paid by overseas buyers for properties and businesses have been revealed.
The price paid by Navis Equity for three-quarters of New Zealand largest egg-laying business, Mainland Poultry, was $285 million, according to Overseas Investment Office (OIO) information released one year after the deal.
This compares with the price widely reported in Australian media of A$350 million (about NZ$380m) – which propelled its Dunedinbased founder, Michael Guthrie, onto the National Business Review Rich List after a guesstimate that he pocketed about A$300m, or NZ$325m.
The more accurate figure for the price paid for Guthrie’s 75 per cent shareholding was closer to NZ$200m based on the latest figures.
It is unclear where Guthrie has reinvested his money but he and coinvestors such as fellow Dunedinite Murray Valentine retain a variety of property, tourism and agribusiness ventures as well as minor shareholdings in Mainland Poultry, which is now called Grabline.
Valentine has achieved profile recently for his investment in a highly controversial mega-dairy farm, Simon’s Pass Station, near Twizel in the Mackenzie District, south Canterbury. He declined to talk about the deal.
Another belatedly revealed price was the $18m paid for Paratiho Estate at Motueka by Jean-Pierre Fourcade, president of la Brasserie de Tahiti brewery, to former owners British banking boss Sir Keith Whitson and his wife, Lady Sabine Whitson. This price paid compares with the asking price of $20m.
A third price released by the OIO was $4.5m by Craigmore Permanent Crop Partnership for a 17-hectare kiwifruit orchard at 870 Te Matai Rd, Tauranga.
Meanwhile, just days before the latest amendments to the Overseas Investment Office Act take effect, the Government has announced a further review.
The first phase amendments included a ban on foreign buyers acquiring existing homes, effective from October 22, and measures to encourage foreign investment in forestry.
Exceptions include citizens and permanent residents of Australia and Singapore purchasing residential land, and exceptions for buyers of short-term leases, off-the-plans apartment purchases, and hotel units for lease back.
Acquisitions of forestry rights more than 1000ha will require consent.
But it will be easier to obtain consent if there are ‘‘substantial and identifiable’’ benefits, such as planting trees. Associate Finance Minister David Parker’s next phase of reforms announced yesterday was aimed at reducing complexity, and introducing discretion to decline significant foreign investment in infrastructure assets with monopoly characteristics.
A Bell Gully analysis said the move to cut red tape was welcome.
Circumstances the law firm had identified where consent requirements were unduly burdensome included: potential exemptions or a fast-track process for land deemed ‘‘sensitive’’ only because it adjoined a park or reserve; NZX-listed companies where shareholdings by overseas persons were widely held by numerous individuals; and acquisitions of minority shareholdings in sensitive land where the overseas person has no practical control over the land.
Public consultation will take place in the first half of 2019 for legislation to be drafted in 2020.