Sistema millionaire Brendan Lindsay lifts stake in Methven

Sistema founder Brendan Lindsay. Photo / File

Kapiti lad made good Brendan Lindsay, who sold his plastics container business Sistema for $660 million in 2016, has lifted his stake in listed tapware maker company Methven to just shy of 20 per cent.

On Tuesday, Lindsay's trust, the Lindsay Investment Trust, paid $5.7m for another 6.4 per cent of Methven's shares, according to a substantial shareholder notice. He now owns 19.9 per cent of the company.

Reuters data showed 4.7 million Methven shares were bought at $1.20 apiece, a premium to Monday's closing price of $1.10. The stock was last unchanged at $1.18.

Lindsay sold Sistema to US consumer goods conglomerate Newell Brands. Investments since include Cambridge Stud, which he bought in late 2017, and honey business Coast to Coast Bees, where he bought a 50 per cent stake in July.

Before receiving shareholder notice, Methven chief financial officer and company secretary Jannine Mountford said the purchase was a "strong endorsement" after a positive full-year result.

In late August, the Auckland-based company lifted earnings before interest and tax by 20 per cent to $10.7m, and said new distribution arrangements in Asia would offer growth for the next two financial years. It also forecast international sales to accelerate in the 2019 financial year and for the domestic business to recover lost market share.

Other substantial shareholders include NZ-based Salt Funds Management, which held 9.8 per cent as at May 22.

Lindsay was born in Pukerua Bay, on the Kapiti Coast, and became a chef in the Air Force before starting a business making sizing clips for coat hangers. His next step involved manufacturing coat hangers from his garage in Cambridge, and he founded Sistema Plastics to sell the now-famous Klip it product range in 1998.