Utilico buys interest in Tourism Holdings

INFRATIL director and shareholder Duncan Saville is behind a Bermuda-based, London-listed investment fund’s purchase of 7.1 per cent of Tourism Holdings (THL).

The Nzx-listed tourism business announced yesterday that Utilico Investments had bought 7 million shares, in a deal estimated to be worth $4.4m. Utilico is managed by ICM, the fund manager and corporate finance adviser headed by Saville.

Saville was a mentor and friend to the late Infratil founder Lloyd Morrison, who died last month following a battle with leukemia.

Utilico is also Infratil’s biggest shareholder, holding 19 per cent of the infrastructure investment company, its 2011 annual report shows.

Utilico’s move into the tourism sector is reminiscent of Omnicorp, the tourism investment company headed by Morrison which was eventually sold by majority shareholder Chase because of the 1987 sharemarket crash.

Morrison would go on to found Wellington investment bank HRL Morrison & Co, but maintained ties with Saville.

He is said to have used Saville’s Foreign & Colonial Special Utilities Investment Trust as the model for Infratil, and appointed him to the board in 1994. Saville also sits on the board of HRL Morrison & Co, the manager of Infratil.

Utilico’s purchase of a THL stake comes after the tourism company fended off a takeover bid from Ballylinch last year.

The New Zealand limited partnership, headed by Swiss-based investor John Grace, sought to lift its stake in THL from about 19 per cent to between 50.01 per cent and 52 per cent, at 67.5c a share.

At the time of Ballylinch’s offer, independent adviser Simmons Corporate Finance valued THL’S shares at between 97c and $1.27.

THL’S shares closed yesterday unchanged at 63c.