After four years of private equity ownership, the Japanese brewer Asahi Group Holdings Ltd completed its purchase of Independent Liquor Group in September 2011.
The sale by Brendan Lindsay of Sistema - the company he founded - would rank as one of the biggest so called "trade" sales the market has seen for a while, analysts said.
At the purchase price, Sistema would have ranked as a top 50 company if had listed on the NZX, where it would have been a welcome addition, analysts said.
"I can't remember anything that big in terms of a private entity selling," Harbour Asset Management portfolio manager and analyst Shane Solly said.
"It's a real New Zealand success story that would have great have had great support from the New Zealand capital markets, but good on him (Lindsay)," he said.
Mark Lister, head of private wealth research at Craigs Investment Partners, said it was disappointing that Sistema did not go public.
Lindsay told the Herald on Monday that he did not want the high profile that a public listing would have entailed, and that the sale to Newell would open doors to the US - a market the company had found to be elusive.
"$660 million is a chunky deal by anyone's measure - and that's large in New Zealand terms," Lister said.
"It's up there with the best of them in terms of recent transactions," he said.
Lister agreed that it was disappointing that the company did not go public.
"We would always prefer companies to come to the capital markets to list, rather than change hands behind closed doors and to go offshore," he said.
"We always have a bias because we like to see more companies on the share market and we want to see companies to stay in New Zealand to give KiwiSaver and private investors more opportunities," he said.
"But at the same time, they have to make the most sensible commercial decisions available to them," Lister said.
"Every sale is different."
