Enza shareholders probe speedy sale

Friday 30th June 2000

The quickfire sale of a Hamilton property by apple marketer Enza sparked a private investigation into the deal by concerned shareholders.

While the fruit exporter braces itself for a budget blowout this year, questions have been raised over the sale of the Hamilton building - its former offices - which has been valued as high as $4 million.

Hamilton property investor Roger Giles, who specialises in turning around untenanted Waikato properties for a profit, bought the Te Kowhai Rd building for $1.5 million including GST late last year.

He said a private investigator claiming to represent Enza shareholders visited him in Hamilton earlier this year over concerns the building may have been sold for a lot less that it was worth. The insinuation was that there was a backhanded deal involved in the sale, Mr Giles said.

The building was not publicly listed for sale and Mr Giles entered negotiations with Enza on the back of a cold call to its Wellington property department.

"All [the private investigator] wanted to know was how well I knew the valuer or the property management. I had never heard of the valuer," he said. He said a private valuer had put the building's worth at $1.325 million if it was untenanted and $3.6 million if it had tenants.

A 1998 government valuation put the building's value at $1.9 million. QV Valuations, a division of Quotable Value New Zealand, was unable to confirm what the value of the building was with tenants but it is believed to be about $4 million.

"This happens all the time when companies have large untenanted buildings and they have to carry these huge costs. You go in and make a cash offer and they accept it," Mr Giles said. "I would have gone higher,"

But he said the Enza board had gone to the shareholders first to offer them the building before selling it to Mr Giles. He believes the investigation was sparked by shareholders who had seen the building refurbished and newly tenanted.

Enza has since offered Mr Giles buildings it has up for sale in Gisborne and Masterton.

- Michele Simpson

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