Rayonier selling part of NZ stake

A US-based forest products giant is clipping back its holding in a New Zealand timber consortium by selling part of its stake to an Australian entity.

Rayonier will prune its timber investment holding from 49.7 per cent to 40 per cent for about US$23 million by selling to Australia's AMP Capital Investors.

Including Rayonier's 9.7 per cent stake, AMP is buying 35 per cent of the consortium which holds the timber investments.

Rayonier, which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, said the move was consistent with its announced intention when it went into the consortium to hold the New Zealand forestry interests last October.

The forests are in the North and South Islands stretching one end of the country to the other, throughout Southland, Canterbury, Marlborough, Hawkes Bay, Bay of Plenty and Northland.

An Auckland Rayonier spokesman said yesterday that the company never envisaged continuing to hold such a large stake.

"We had a holding position while other investors were being finalised."

However, Rayonier will continue to manage the 143,000ha forestry estate.

The consortium between Rayonier and Deutsche Bank manages the country's third-largest forest estate and was formed last year when trees previously owned by Rayonier and Deutsche's RREEF Infrastructure unit were bought from Carter Holt Harvey.

Last October, the consortium bought Rayonier's 48,000ha and a further 95,000ha of Carter Holt Harvey forests. Rayonier, which owns, leases or manages 1 million hectares of timberland in the US, New Zealand and Australia, has operated here since 1988.