Tourism Holdings sells Fiji assets

THL chief executive Grant Webster Photo / Dean Purcell

Tourism Holdings agreed to sell its transport and tourism businesses in Fiji to local interests and will use the funds to repay debt.

The company's Tourist Transport (Fiji) and Feejee Experience units are to be merged with a local company called Coral Sun(Fiji), creating the island nation's largest tourist transportation operator, it said in a statement.

The price will be based on the value of net assets, at about
$1.8 million, chief executive Grant Webster said.

Tourism Holdings was approached by Coral, its major competitor in Fiji.

The assets are not strategic for the company, he said.

Tourism Holdings' 2009 annual report said the Fiji businesses were operating in a "difficult" environment though it was "operating effectively after the recent political issues and the January 2009 flood recovery."

Still, Webster said Fiji has enjoyed "a bit of a resurgence of late" and Tourism Holdings had a good 2009-2010 year in local currency terms, with the current year "on track for further gains."

Fiji's military regime has cracked down on foreign ownership of some businesses, forcing Rupert Murdoch's News Ltd. to sell the Fiji Times to local interests.

But Webster said the political environment didn't have a bearing on his decision to sell.

"We've owned TTF through floods, through a number of coups - the political environment had nothing to do with it," he said.

The sale is expected to settle at the end of the month.

Shares of Tourism Holdings were unchanged at 80 cents.