Australian-owned Godfrey Hirst has applied for leave to appeal against a High Court decision last month that dismissed an earlier bid to block a merger of New Zealand's largest wool-scouring operations.
The Commerce Commission in November approved a plan for Cavalier Wool Holdings (CWH) to acquire New Zealand Wool Services International's wool-scouring business and assets, saying the public benefits would outweigh the substantial loss of competition.
The merger has been stayed pending the appeal by Godfrey Hirst, a rival of New Zealand-owned carpet-maker Cavalier Corp, which is one of the three shareholders in CWH.
Cavalier has said there is excess wool-scouring capacity in New Zealand and the merger proposal was about consolidating assets and realising efficiencies to keep wool processing in the country and avoid the off-shoring that had occurred in Australia.
In the High Court at Auckland yesterday, Godfrey Hirst's lawyer, John Dixon, said the company was seeking leave to argue its appeal before the Court of Appeal on three grounds including that the Commerce Commission incorrectly treated the benefits that go to foreign shareholders.