GPG sells Turners stock

The sale of up to $60 million of shares in listed fruit and vegetable trader Turners & Growers by corporate raider Guinness Peat Group will open up trading in a previously tightly-held stock.

Turners & Growers is today in a trading halt as sharebroker Goldman Sachs JBWere executes the sale of up to 20.25 million shares.

Other brokers will take part and the shares will go to institutional and retail investors.

If all the shares are placed, GPG will slip from a 78.3 per cent stake to 50.1 per cent, reaping an expected $55 million to $60 million.

Turners & Growers listed in September last year but GPG and the other main shareholder, Bartel Holdings, together held 88.3 per cent of the company - leaving few shares freely traded.

Bartel is ultimately owned by Ecuador's Alvaro Noboa family, the people behind Bonita bananas.

The sell-down will bring Turners & Growers in line with NZX requirements for a minimum spread of shareholders.

In February, Turners & Growers posted a full-year profit of $9.72 million, up 13 per cent on forecasts but down on the previous year.

Turners & Growers owns Enza, which exports nearly 40 per cent of all New Zealand apples.