KEY POINTS:
After being denied the right to buy part of the Stevenson Group three years ago, Fletcher Building has taken a tilt at another part of the business.
The Commerce Commission yesterday said it had an application from Fletcher for clearance to buy Stevenson's Whangarei and Auckland masonry businesses.
In June 2005, Fletcher Concrete and Infrastructure sought commission clearance to buy the building products division of Stevenson. But on September 15 of that year, the commission rejected the deal because it feared cement prices would rise even further if the sale was cleared.
New Zealanders already paid the second-highest price in the world for cement, just behind Mexico. To allow the deal to go ahead would substantially lessen competition in this key market sector, the commission found then.
Yesterday, the commission noted Fletcher also already had an interest in masonry businesses via its ownership of Firth, which designs and manufactures concrete and concrete masonry products.
Fletcher Building had a block-making plant at East Tamaki in Auckland as well as in other areas, the commission said. But it did not have a masonry plant in Whangarei and it supplied its customers there from the East Tamaki plant.
The commission said its role was to ascertain whether the purchase would substantially lessen competition in the market.
Firth says it is the largest and only national manufacturer offering a complete range of concrete products, systems and solutions.
Part of the business started by the Firth family at Rangiriri, north of Hamilton, in 1925 was sold to Fletcher in 1973 and a full buyout was completed in 1979.
In 1993 two Fletcher Challenge business units - Certified Concrete and Firth Concrete Products - were merged to become the Firth company of today.
Stevenson is a major player in the country's construction industry, supplying aggregates and a wide range of concrete-based building materials. The group also has interests in agriculture, transport, engineering services and property development and owns and operates quarries at Drury, Huntly and Kaiaua.
The group's farming operation is at Lochinver Station near Taupo.
Stevenson's products include concrete surfaces and flooring systems, masonry, concrete block, brick wall and patio supplies.
