Forum Archive Index - November 2001

["nick" <helmett@xtra.co.nz>]

  Just found this at yahoo finance

 

UPDATE 1-NZ's Turners GPG.L looks to list car auction unit

(Recasts, add chairman comment, detail)

By Rodney Joyce

WELLINGTON, Nov 9 (Reuters) - New Zealand auctioneer and produce wholesaler Turners & Growers Ltd on Friday announced plans to spin off its motor vehicle auction unit and possibly list it on the stock exchange.

Turners Auction Ltd could be listed early in the second quarter of 2002, with a brokerage house currently in the process of being appointed, Turners & Growers chairman Tony Gibbs told Reuters.

"It's a distinct possibility," Gibbs said.

Shares in the company would be available on the secondary grey market, like Turners & Growers, and possibly on the main board of the New Zealand Stock Exchange, Gibbs said.

Turners Auctions, which carries out both wholesale and retail car auctions and is New Zealand's largest car seller, auctions 60,000 cars a year, Gibbs said.

The unit recorded turnover of NZ$315 million in the year to June 2001, with earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) of just over NZ$6 million.

Turners & Growers is 44 percent owned by the investment vehicle of entrepreneur Sir Ron Brierley, Guinness Peat Group Plc GPG.L.

"(Separation) will give Turners Auction Ltd a life of its own and will enable the company in due course to access capital markets in order to continue its programme of expansion," Gibbs said.

"It's a company that New Zealanders know well and identify with and it's a company that does real things."

Any capital raising would be small, to help with expansion plans, he added.