KEY POINTS:
Founder Graham Gosney says Tourism Holdings will have come full circle if it is sold to MFS.
When THL, which was known until the mid-1990s as The Helicopter Line, was in full flight, it bought back prime New Zealand tourism assets from overseas interests, including Milford Sound Red Boats, the hotel and the track, the Waitomo Caves and hotel, a hotel in Rotorua and the Hermitage at Mt Cook.
Now, the prospect of some of those assets being owned by an Australian company looks more likely by the day.
The THL board has recommended the $2.80 a share offer by Australian group MFS.
"What we bought up and put together as a company included some iconic attractions we had got back from overseas," said Gosney
"Our business in Australia of Britz and Maui has about 3000 campervans. Maybe Australia is getting some of its own business back."
It seemed that MFS had "buckets of money" to go and buy what it wanted, said Gosney.
Tourism Holdings has its roots in the deep south.
It started life in Wanaka as a helicopter company put together by Gosney, Alpine Helicopter directors Sir Tim Wallis and Don Spary and Dunedin accountant Reid Jackson.
By 1986, it had more than 30 helicopters sporting distinctive blue and red colours.
Gosney, who was by then managing director - a position he held for 10 years - was working on ways to make the company less vulnerable to the weather.
The group had expanded into Treble Cone Ski Field.
"We had to find something that was not so weather related as helicopters and ski fields. We decided that owning campervans and rental cars was not such a bad idea."
THL bought the Maui business and found itself involved in a cut throat price war with the Mt Cook and Newmans lines. THL bought them both and Nelson company Travel Homes.
Newmans, through a separate company, had marketing offices in Japan the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom. Mt Cook also had an overseas presence.
"We decided that not only would we host people in New Zealand but we would get their business at the same time from our overseas offices."
THL worked closely with the then Tourism Board to attract visitors to New Zealand and make the country's tourism industry profitable, Gosney said.
They were the most exciting years I ever had. When you talk about the share price being $2.80, I have seen it down at 22c and up close to $6."
At one stage, The Helicopter Line invested in the Christchurch Casino, something that did not please all shareholders.
THL saw it as a tourism attraction and a way of keeping people in Christchurch for longer, Gosney said.
"I don't think all of the board were gamblers but we were happy to get it started. When the time came, we were happy to exit. It was one of the few things we bought and sold. We were hoarders."
Asked for his reaction to the possible sale of the company, Gosney said it was sad to contemplate the ownership of THL moving overseas.
The group had always had overseas-based funds as shareholders and Sterling Grace Capital Management had bought its 17 per cent of the company on the open market.
"But something that you've been part of since 1973, and you hoped would go on a lot longer, is now disappearing. In that way, it's sad."
Gosney hoped that if the deal went through, MFS would keep the experienced staff, some of whom had been with the company for 20 years.
"We have a lot of good people. I would like to think they would continue on but it depends on who is at the top."
-OTAGO DAILY TIMES
