Hirequip hopes to have a buyer soon

Hirequip was expected to wrap up negotiations to sell its core equipment hire business within the next few weeks, the company said yesterday while delaying the annual meeting.

Chairman Graeme Wong said delaying the meeting, which was due to be held next week, until the outcome of negotiations was a more cost-effective choice.

"We're going to know either way within a few weeks, so I guess what we're doing is giving ourselves enough time to have an efficient meeting."

The alternative would have been to hold two meetings.

Wong would not say how many bidders were involved, whether talks were going well or if they had hit a snag.

"We're obviously working away, otherwise we wouldn't be doing what we're doing, so I guess we've got to keep our nose to the grindstone and see what the outcome is," Wong said.

ABN Amro Craigs analyst Selwyn Blinkhorne said it was hard to read too much into the delayed meeting.

"The most obvious conclusion is that if they didn't think a positive outcome was likely they wouldn't have deferred the meeting," he said.

"Whether it means that there's still, at one extreme, a smidgen of a chance that somebody's going to make an offer for the hire business or whether it means that things are chugging along really well and they're fully expecting an offer, I don't know."

A revised date for the annual meeting has not yet been set.

Last week, Hirequip sold two so-called "legacy assets" - a stake in Tasman Farms and Pegasus Bay Town development - for a $16.8 million profit. Wong said the timing of the sales was not connected to the sale negotiations for the hire business.

"We've had a long-term goal of gradually liquidating the investments at what we see as good value. It's really just a question of opportunity and timing."

Should the core hire-equipment business be sold, it was unlikely Hirequip would re-invest in a new direction.

"Until we've got a transaction done, it's certainly hypothetical but, having said that, it wouldn't be our intention to refocus the business on some entirely different sphere," Wong said.

The most likely outcome was that money realised from sales would be returned to shareholders.

Hirequip's share price closed up 2c yesterday at $1.23.