$193m Tower mall deal gets clearance

Government clearance has been given to a $193 million deal that will see an ownership restructuring of property entities that have the Bayfair Shopping Centre in Mt Maunganui and the Merivale Mall in Christchurch.

A proposed restructuring of Tower Asset Management's Tower Property Fund saw the Overseas Investment Commission clear the deal for the changes to the assets.

Centro NZ Shopping Centre Fund was given permission to buy the two malls with a plan for Tower to get all the stapled securities in Centro NZ. Tower already owns the two malls.

The commission said the deal on the two malls would result in Tower Property Fund changing from having direct ownership of the land under the malls to owning shares in a company that owned the land.

The commission allowed the deal to proceed because the restructuring would result in Tower having increased liquidity and diversification and result in a better deal for Tower's investors.

Greg Whitten, head of property investments at Tower Asset Management, said yesterday that the new stapled security fund would remain unlisted and was exclusively for large corporate superannuation clients.

A $104 million deal for Evergreen Forests to sell 25,612ha of forestry assets in the Bay of Plenty, Coromandel, Gisborne, Hawkes Bay, Northland and Waikato areas to Australia's James Fielding Funds Management was also cleared.

Fletcher Building subsidiary Fletcher Residential was cleared to buy 8.6ha of Auckland property from New Zealand's Kirkdale Investments for $22 million. The Wattle Cove land is part of Fletcher's Wattle Downs housing estate development.

Listed property developer Trans Tasman Properties was cleared to buy 39ha of land at Johns Rd and Main Road North at Belfast outside Christchurch from interests associated with John Powell. The $11 million deal will see the Hong Kong-controlled company put the property in the hands of subsidiary Clearwater Property Holdings. A second $675,000 transaction will see it buy a small block in the area from Powell's Latimer Holdings.