Kirkaldie shares jump as developer takes a slice

Property entrepreneur David Pritchard and Wellington accountant Michael Curtis today increased their stake in iconic Wellington retailer Kirkaldie & Stains to 14 per cent.

More than 188,000 shares were traded on the sharemarket today -- nearly 19 per cent per cent of the company. That spurred Kirkaldie's share price to jump 32 cents, or 12.6 per cent, to $2.87 today -- the highest price since April 2004.

Mr Pritchard and Mr McLean are listed as the directors of LQ Investments, which issued a substantial security holder notice, detailing its 14 per cent holding.

"We just think it's a good company and we are Wellington based," Mr Pritchard told NZPA. He denied being interested in Kirkaldies for the property it owns in downtown Wellington. He declined further comment.

Mr Curtis was not immediately available to comment.

Three years ago Mr Pritchard's company, Pritchard Group, was reported to own more than $100 million worth of residential property developments. Its website describes the company, owned by Mr Pritchard and his brother Stuart, as the Kapiti Coast's largest development company.

In 2003, the former dairy farmer was one of six finalists in the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year awards. He said then that as a youngster he dreamed of being a millionaire.

His dairy farming experience in the 1960s taught him there was more money to be made out of buying and selling land than milking cows.

"Every time we bought a dairy farm we used to sell the back paddock to reduce debt. We ended up getting into some reasonable-sized property development."

In 1990, he decided to quit dairy farming and focus on land and property.

The company started out subdividing farms into rural lifestyle blocks near Otaki north of Wellington before moving into residential development.

Pritchard Group specialised in 50-50 joint ventures to reduce the risk of holding land. The group has completed about 10 joint ventures, including developments with the state-owned Landcorp in Taupo and Northland.

While the company has had developments around the country, including Coromandel, Tauranga, Marlborough, Nelson and Queenstown, the focus remains on the Kapiti Coast.

Last year Pritchard group was involved in a controversial development of a 448-hectare block of Otaki land owned by Landcorp.

Mr Pritchard is on the boards of Housing Corp of New Zealand and Port of Marlborough.

- NZPA