Transpacific gains OIO approval for NZ unit sale

Transpacific gains OIO approval for NZ unit sale to Beijing Capital

By Suze Metherell

June 10 (BusinessDesk) - The Overseas Investment Office has approved the sale of the New Zealand waste management arm of Transpacific Industries to Beijing Capital Group.

Chinese state-owned Beijing Capital spent $950 million on the New Zealand business, buying it from the Queensland-based company in March. At the time of the announcement it said the current management team would remain and operations would continue as normal. The sale has also been approved by Chinese regulators.

Transpacific wrote down the value of the kiwi business by A$188 million in 2011 after acquiring the operations for $870 million in 2006. The company’s decision to scale back its business comes after a debt-fuelled expansion before the global financial crisis, culminating in 2008 with the A$1.25 billion acquisition of rival Cleanaway to create Australasia’s biggest waste disposal firm.

Beijing Capital is a water treatment, waste management, mass transit railway and toll road company with property development interests. Its assets are valued at US$21 billion and its New Zealand investment is the company’s first major international acquisition, it said in March.

Transpacific's dual-listed shares, which rarely trade on the NZX, were unchanged at $1.20 and have declined 11 percent this year. On the ASX they last traded at A$1.095, and have fallen 6.4 percent year to date.

(BusinessDesk)

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