The Carter Holt Harvey Sawmill at Putaruru, south Waikato. Photo / Sarah Ivey
The Carter Holt Harvey Sawmill at Putaruru, south Waikato. Photo / Sarah Ivey
The former Carter Holt Harvey Equities is being liquidated as a solvent business because its owner no longer requires it to stay registered.
Andrew Grenfell and Kare Johnstone, accountants at McGrathNicol, have issued an initial report on the business owned by Rank Group which is the main vehicle in thiscountry for New Zealand’s richest man, billionaire Graeme Hart.
Public notices said LQNZ4 (Carter Holt Harvey Equities or CHHE) was originally incorporated in 1975 and headquartered at Rank’s trading address on level nine, 148 Quay St in Auckland.
“As the company no longer holds any investments, the shareholder does not require the company to remain registered,” a McGrathNicol report said.
“The liquidation is being carried out as part of the rationalisation of the Carter Holt Harvey group and the directors have resolved that the company will be able to pay its debts,” notices published in the Herald and the New Zealand Gazette said.
Companies Office records showed LQNZ4 (CHHE) is owned by Qeynos New Zealand, incorporated in 1971. The ultimate holding company of Qeynos is Rank Group which Hart owns.
Carter Holt Harvey has been in timber manufacturing for more than 150 years.
Hart’s business also owns the national trade-focused merchants Carters where it sells its own products and others.
CHH Timber is one of the largest and oldest producers of timber building products in this country, it says, with mills at Kawerau, Kinleith and Nelson.
New Zealand billionaire Graeme Hart whose fortune has been put at $12b-plus. Photo / Getty Images
Brands include Laserframe and Pinex for use in structurally graded or outdoor timber applications. It produces laminated veneer lumber, plywood and other building materials.
Carter Holt was listed on the NZX until Hart took it over in early 2006.
Those are publicly-listed packaging business Pactiv Evergreen Inc, listed on the Nasdaq in September 2020, which made total net revenue of US$5.5b for the year to December 31, 2023 and Reynolds Consumer Products Inc, also Nasdaq-listed, which made US$3.7b ($6b) in the same year.
Hart companies own 78 per cent of Pactiv Evergreen and 74 per cent of Reynolds.
But the challenging economy lately has pushed down revenue from those two US companies.
Reynolds makes aluminium foil, parchment paper, plastic wrap, oven bags, slow cooker liners, rubbish bags, slider bags, plates and cups with brands including Reynolds Wrap, Alcan and Diamond.
Pactiv Evergreen says it is one of the United States’ top manufacturers of packaging for fresh food and beverages, employing 14,000 staff at 51 manufacturing sites and 41 distribution centres, producing 14,000 unique products
Hart has been active lately in New Zealand via his Fernbrook property businesses which bought land then developed several large logistics and warehouse sites.
Those include:
A 28ha block of land at 31 Prices Rd off Puhinui Rd in the Manukau/Wiri area for $94m;
90 Pavilion Drive, Māngere, for $21m, land on the edge of the Villa Maria Estate, itself about to become a $500m industrial office park;
A block of 3.8ha of undeveloped land at the end of a dead-end, 9 Jerry Green St, off Roscommon Rd, East Tamaki, said to have settled for around $30m ;
68 Cryers Rd, East Tamaki, developed land in the hub of a commercially highly active zone for around $26m;
11 Greenmount Drive, East Tamaki, for $18.2m in a deal brokered by agents, including from JLL.
Anne Gibson has been the Herald’s property editor for 24 years, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.
