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Major shareholder sells Tranz Rail stake

By Phil Boeyen, ShareChat Business News Editor

Friday 8th February 2002

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David Richwhite and Sir Michael Fay have finally offloaded their stake in rail transport company Tranz Rail (NZSE: TRH), 15 months after it was first announced that they were looking to get rid of the shares.

Tranz Rail told the market in November 2000 that two of its major shareholders - US-based Wisconsin Central International with 24%, and Fay, Richwhite, with 14.5% - wanted to sell their holdings in the company.

A notice to the market on Friday announced that the Fay, Richwhite controlled company, Pacific Rail Ltd, has sold its parcel of 17.552 million Tranz Rail shares by private placement.

The founding investors have been particularly circumspect about commenting on selling their holding and today's announcement was equally subdued.

"The company keeps its investments under constant review. An opportunity arose to realise our stake and as a result we decided to sell," says David Richwhite.

Sir Michael and David Richwhite have resided in Switzerland for some years where they run a private equity firm based in Geneva.

Tranz Rail announced a much higher interim net profit on Thursday but the improvement was mainly from asset sales. Operating profit fell by more than 20% to $13.7 million compared to the previous year's result.

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