Rayonier sells forest

By CHRIS DANIELS

US forestry giant Rayonier has sold almost half its New Zealand forest estate to a Chinese company for $144.7 million.

The company said it was approached by Huaguang Forest, which wanted to buy its 33,000ha forest on the East Cape.

Stretching from inland of Tolaga Bay up to the East Cape itself, the forest is being bought as a going concern and all staff are being offered continued employment by the Chinese, say Rayonier.

"Although we are selling our East Coast operations, New Zealand and the Australasia region continues to be a strategic area of operation for Rayonier,"said chairman, president and chief executive Lee Nutter.

The Overseas Investment Commission still needs to approve the sale.

Managing director of Rayonier Asia Pacific James Everett said trees from the forest would continue to be exported to China as logs.

Huaguang was a huge wood processing company, making primarily plywood and fibreboard, employing more than 20,000 people and it had an ability to process every log that came out of the East Cape forest.

Rayonier has owned the forest since the mid-1990s.