Richest woman's $140m payday

Thirty years ago, frustrated with the quality of sleeping bags on the market, Jan Cameron started sewing her own in a tiny flat. Soon she was selling them to friends and on her way to building a business empire - or so the legend goes.

Yesterday the reclusive Christchurch-based owner of Kathmandu sold 51 per cent of the outdoor clothing and equipment chain for nearly $140 million.

The deal - which will confirm her status as New Zealand's richest woman - leaves her with a 49 per cent stake and takes the value of the company to $275 million.

Two private equity funds - Goldman Sachs JBWere's Hauraki fund and Australian fund Quadrant - will share the controlling stake.

Jan Cameron's status has been enhanced by her aversion to the media - she doesn't do interviews and has never had her photograph published. She was true to form yesterday, leaving the equity funds to do the talking.

One of the keys to her success in this country has been the much loved Kathmandu sales - which turned the industry on its head by offering discounts of more than 50 per cent. The company also won praise from environmentalists for its Ecofleece - garments produced from shredded recycled plastic soft-drink bottles.

With its headquarters in Christchurch, Kathmandu has 20 stores in New Zealand, 22 in Australia and four in Britain.

The future involved big expansion plans, said Goldman Sachs head of merchant banking Clark Perkins. There would be more stores in the three countries, he said.

Kathmandu was a fantastic brand with potential to trade on New Zealand's outdoor image in the European market, he said.

All the Goldman Sachs money coming to the deal was from New Zealand investors, Mr Perkins said.

He was reluctant to give reasons as to why Jan Cameron may have decided to sell out now.

But he did confirm that Goldman Sachs had approached her about the deal.

According to a 2004 profile in business magazine Unlimited the Australian born mountaineer settled in Christchurch in the 1980s after falling in love with the landscape of the South Island.

Her first stores were called Alp Sports. When she sold out of those in 1987 a restraint of trade agreement in New Zealand led her to set up Kathmandu in Melbourne.

She bought out her partners to become the sole shareholder in the 1990s.