KEY POINTS:
Overseas appetite for New Zealand business declined slightly in the first half of this year but the biggest deal of 2008 has just been cleared.
The Overseas Investment Office released its July decisions and said the purchase of Vector's Wellington network by Cheung Kong Infrastructure, run by Chinese billionaire Li Ka-shing, was the year's largest.
During the first seven months of last year, the office approved 82 deals but in the same time this year, it approved 77 deals.
This year's three biggest deals involving overseas interests are:
* Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holding's and Hong Kong Electric Holding's acquisition of shares in Vector Wellington Electricity Network, a net investment of $785 million.
* Crescent Capital Partners' acquisition of shares in Abano Healthcare Group, a net investment of $106.7 million.
* Nutritek's acquisition of shares in New Zealand Dairies, a net investment of $79.9 million.
The Overseas Investment Office also released a list of land deals to foreigners, the three largest being:
* Phillip Maxwell Colebatch's acquisition of 2307ha of land at Te Hau Station, 209 Te Hau Road, Whatatutu, Gisborne.
* Colebatch's acquisition of 79ha of land at Moanui Station, 1379 Moanui Road, Matawai, Gisborne.
* Graeme Lewis Sims Black, Quentin John Sims Black and Nerissa Margaret Guest's acquisition of the remaining 18.96 per cent of the shares of Amalgamated Holdings, which owns 3555ha of land at 57 West Coast Road, Yaldhurst, Canterbury, and at various addresses in Southland, a net land area of 674ha.
The July decision sheets were released at the end of last week and they showed that after the Vector deal, a large IT sector transaction ranked second.
One of the world's biggest technology companies, Hewlett-Packard of the United States, got approval to buy Electronic Data Systems NZ for $225.5 million as part of its US$14 billion bid for US-based EDS. In May, Hewlett-Packard said it had signed a deal to buy all the shares in EDS.
The next largest deal was a $155.4 million purchase by Porsche Automobil Holding (50 per cent Austrian and 22 per cent German) in its multibillion bid to control Volkswagen AG of Germany. Volkswagen owns shares in a New Zealand subsidiary, LeasePlan New Zealand, a company specialising in car leasing and fleet management.
The value of a deal for Rubicon to buy shares in forestry business Tenon was not revealed. Tenon - formerly Fletcher Challenge Forests - processes, markets and distributes wood products and has assets valued at more than $100 million, the Overseas Investment Office said.
Rubicon owns 57.65 per cent of Tenon but got approval to buy the entire business in 2004. Rubicon now wishes to buy the remaining 42.35 per cent. Australia's Core 3B Holdings (NZ) was cleared to buy Premier Hotels Christchurch for $61.5 million. That gave Core approval to buy all the shares in the New Zealand company, which holds a 99-year lease on the land where Christchurch's Crowne Plaza stands.
Auckland Aquarium, owned by Village Roadshow, was cleared to buy Kelly Tarlton's Antarctic Encounter and Underwater World on Tamaki Drive in Auckland from Tourism Holdings for $13 million.
A New Zealand company, Christchurch Hotels Ltd, got approval to buy Premier Hotels Christchurch from Britain's SPHC (NZ) Holdings for $28.1 million. The Kiwi business owns 68 per cent of the shares in Christchurch Casinos. Premier owns the rest so the deal enables Christchurch Hotels to take full control of the casino, the office said.
Ryton Station of Britain was granted permission on a $23.5 million deal to buy Ryton Holdings of New Zealand, owned by Christchurch property developer Phillip Burmester who has a 14,500ha sheep, beef and cattle farm on Harper Rd, Lake Coleridge, Canterbury. The British investor wants to enhance the station and allow public access to Ryton River which adjoins Department of Conservation lands and lakes Coleridge, Ida and Catherine.
Springfields Partnership, quarter owned by US interests, was approved to buy 83ha of Blenheim land from David Rudd Ltd for $16.1 million. Springfields is a partnership between David Rudd and Nobilo Vintners and it has large vineyard interests.
Fiji Water Co of the US got approval to buy 59ha of land outside Christchurch for $3.1 million. An artesian water bottling business operates on the land at Taitapu.
ING (NZ), 51 per cent owned by Dutch interests, was cleared to buy property standing on half a hectare of leasehold land at 130 Quay St in Auckland for $2.4 million from St Laurence associate SL Properties (Auckland). ING intends to move into the premises, formerly known as St Laurence House, on the waterfront.
Contact Energy, 42 per cent Australian-controlled, was cleared to buy 35.5ha of land near Taupo from LandCorp Farming for $308,250.
Contact operates the Ohaaki geothermal power plant there but intends to lease back the land to LandCorp for farming. Germany's Grandy Lake Forest (NZ) was cleared to buy 616ha of Hawkes Bay land for $2.2 million. Richard and Michele Hemingway of Australia were cleared to buy 6.8ha of land near Lake Hawea for $1.2 million. US interests got approval to buy 21ha of land near Cromwell for $1 million.
FOREIGN WATCHDOG
* Applications made to Government's Overseas Investment Office in Wellington
* Governed by Overseas Investment Act 2005
* Approval required for "sensitive" land deals
* "Significant" business assets draw scrutiny
* Lists of decisions are released monthly
