Rainbow's End fails to thrill buyers

The estate of George Ryerson Gardiner will keep its 74.86 per cent shareholding in the entertainment park. Photo / Glenn Jeffrey

The majority shareholding in South Auckland theme park Rainbow's End will remain under the control of a Canadian trust after it failed to find a buyer prepared to pay the right price.

Rainbow's End's parent company, NZX-listed New Zealand Experience (NZE) announced yesterday that the estate of George Ryerson Gardiner would keep its 74.86 per cent shareholding in the park.

The trust holds 27.7 million shares in the company that at yesterday's listed price of 34c makes the share parcel worth $9.4 million.

NZE chairman Tony Frankham said it was "business as usual" for the park despite failing to find an appropriate buyer.

Frankham said that the trustees, Canadian-based Garlow Management, had reached a point where it wanted to pay out its beneficiaries. But since the shares failed to sell, the trustees had advised the board of NZ Experience that the trust would hold on to its shareholding for the foreseeable future.

"They wanted to sell if they could get a price that they thought was appropriate for their shares. But they did not achieve that objective, so for the time being at least, they will keep the shares."

Frankham said the directors assisted the trust in looking for potential buyers but were not party to the discussions.

He added that the reason the shares did not sell was probably due to the wider market.

NZE director David Lock said the company approached a variety of interested parties in New Zealand and overseas and a number of parties contacted them directly.

"We ran a formal process. The estate in Canada is not in a position where they have to sell. The process was initiated to see what level of interest was out there."

The company announced in June that visitation was up 7 per cent due to The Invader, a new ride introduced at the end of 2009, and other initiatives undertaken in the second half of this financial year. Rainbow's End aims to increase visitor numbers to 285,000 annually.