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.
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