KEY POINTS:
The $26.4 million sale of a large stake in Auckland's Viaduct waterfront area last week was one of the last big deals by a real estate developer before it leaves the NZX.
Last Friday, loss-making Trans Tasman Properties finalised a deal to sell out of the waterfront, just after a takeover offer from its majority owner which will result in the Singapore company de-listing from the NZX.
The company still owns properties in New Zealand and Australia.
Dissenting minority shareholders will be bought out under compulsory acquisition rules.
SEA, controlled by Jesse Lu, said last month it had reached an agreement to get 90.6 per cent control of Trans Tasman Properties after a "lockup" agreement with the Accident Compensation Corporation and LIM Asia Arbitrage Fund. ACC owned 6.07 per cent.
Trans Tasman Properties' chairman Don Fletcher said yesterday the company planned to de-list in June or July.
"After sixteen years of being a public company, it's probably good to have a change," he said.
"We have a public company in Hong Kong with SEA and in London with AGP so it's not as if I'm leaving public company life, but certainly in New Zealand I am.
"A small $100 million development company is not suitable for NZX listing because you don't have the critical mass and unless you're going to grow it, it's really not worth being a listed company."
Trans Tasman Properties, which sprang from Robert Jones Investments and SEABIL (NZ), is a smaller force than in 2000 when it owned real estate worth $1.3 billion and planned to build a 30-level glass office tower between Shortland St and Fort St.
The company has since split into two ventures, one owning properties in Australia and New Zealand, the other owning Asian real estate development sites.
Early last month, Trans Tasman Properties said it had struck a deal to sell its 1.6ha Viaduct block after the Auckland City Council said it wanted to buy more land to give better public access to the area.
Trans Tasman Properties, which lost $3.4 million last year, sold four leasehold development sites bounded by Packenham, Halsey and Madden Sts in the Wynyard Point area to the council for $26.4 million.
"The sale, after accounting for sale costs, is expected to result in a gain of approximately $6 million over the current carrying value of the properties," Trans Tasman Properties said.
The company once had big plans for the land and gradually bought the large chunk because it saw big potential, according to its 2005 annual report.
"The group has continued to acquire land at the northern end of the Western Reclamation within the Viaduct precinct," the report says.
"The purchase of a development site at 120 Halsey St was completed in March and complements the adjoining Halsey and Madden St sites acquired during 2004. Subsequent to year end the group has conditionally purchased a fourth contiguous site in Packenham Street ... This purchase will result in a land area of the combined sites of 16,905sq m. Development proposals for the combined sites are now being examined."
The Auckland City Council said it paid $40.5 million for two big land parcels to improve public access to the waterfront.
The adjoining sites, of 3.3ha, are near the old America Cup bases and several new apartment blocks on Halsey St.
Mayor Dick Hubbard said the deals would enable the council to influence development of the land, which is part of the huge 20-year Tank Farm waterfront development.
Last Friday, Trans Tasman Properties said the deal was unconditional and would settle that day.
Last week, the company also issued what is expected to be the final annual report to minority New Zealand shareholders, who have had no dividends for years.
It reviewed the past year, saying a 41-lot subdivision at Clearwater in Christchurch was being finished and a large Queenstown carparking building would be completed this year.
Last month Trans Tasman Properties also bought a company, Waterside Business Centre, which owns 7ha of land on Favona Rd at Mangere and has contracts over a further 5ha.
What TTP still owns
* Chancery carpark, Kitchener St, Auckland
* Parts of Clearwater resort, Christchurch.
* A 521-bay Queenstown carpark, almost finished.
* 10 housing lots and chalets at Grassmere in the South Island.
* Block of land on Favona Rd, Mangere.
* Christchurch land subject to an Environment Court ruling
* Strata-titled Sydney office block at 65 York St.
