Charlie's squeezes closer to listing

Charlie's, the orange juice company made famous by former All Black Marc Ellis, is headed for the stock exchange through a $16.6 million deal with listed technology investor Spectrum Resources.

Spectrum will sell an existing investment in software development business Kinetiq, undertake a 1-for-10 consolidation of its shares and then issue shares to Charlie's shareholders at 10c each. The listed company will then be renamed Charlie's.

Ellis and business partner Stefan Lepionka will each pocket about $5 million in shares through the deal with Spectrum and will be major shareholders of the new company.

Asked if he was headed for the NBR Rich List, Ellis said, "There's a damn lot of water, or orange juice, that's got to go under the bridge before that, I can assure you."

It will be the second time Lepionka has squeezed rewards from the sale of a juice company. He started Stefan's Fresh Juice Company in 1990 and sold it to Frucor in 1994. Ellis and Lepionka each own 36 per cent of Charlie's.

Ellis said yesterday he could not comment much more on the deal due to stock-exchange regulations covering Spectrum.

"We want to take the company forward and this is a great opportunity to do that. We want to take it to the next level. This gives us the ability to look at some new and exciting opportunities," he said.

Dorchester Pacific managing director Brent King, whose company has a significant stake in Spectrum through its finance arm, said he had been looking for opportunities for Spectrum since he joined its board in September and hoped the transaction would see the company turn the corner after languishing in recent years.

"Charlie's came along and we though it was an attractive option. We're impressed by many of the things they've done and plans they've got and thought it was a good option for the shareholders of Spectrum."

He said Spectrum had yet to run a ruler over Charlie's and completion of due diligence was one of the conditions of the deal. He hoped Charlie's would be listed through the deal by late March to early April.