Evergreen investors find Aussie attractive

Evergreen Forests shareholders have voted in favour of a $115 million bid for most of its forests from Australia's James Fielding Funds Management.

The sale, which closes on October 31, received the necessary 75 per cent shareholder support at a 10-minute meeting in Auckland yesterday.

Fielding upped its bid by more than $10 million a week ago after Evergreen's largest shareholder, Ohio Public Employees Retirement System, said it would support a $112 million offer by the New Zealand Superannuation Fund. The Government-owned fund had topped Fielding's original $104.2 million offer late last month.

Fielding's winning offer amounts to 34c a share in net proceeds.

Fielding, which is owned by property developer Mirvac Group, sweetened its bid by also agreeing to try to get a loan to Evergreen reassigned to another lender, to avoid penalty fees for early repayment.

The forests and land went on the market in March. Evergreen's balance sheet was heavily leveraged as the company borrowed to expand. It owes an estimated $70 million.

"It's been disappointing to shareholders to have been part of a company that hasn't provided anything close to an adequate return," Evergreen's chairman, Peter Wilson, said during the meeting.

After the vote Wilson, chairman since Evergreen's inception in 1993, called the winning offer "very good in today's market".

Peter Mertz, chief executive of Global Forest Partners, the firm that advised US-based Ohio to first back the Super Fund, said the Fielding offer was the "best alternative shareholders faced today".

The bidding process saw up to 20 parties expressing interest.

The Fielding offer was for Evergreen's North Island forests, which amount to 90 per cent of its assets. It also has some South Island assets.