Hart To Sell Carter Holt Wood Businesses

20 September 2007
Billionaire Graeme Hart has put a 'for sale' sign up on the 18 sawmill and wood manufacturing plants in Australia and New Zealand he acquired through the takeover of New Zealand's largest forestry company, Carter Holt Harvey.
The sale is being managed by First NZ Capital and Credit Suisse First Boston and the price could rival the NZ$2.24 billion Telecom got for its Yellow Pages business, a Wellington newspaper has reported.
Since paying NZ$3.3 billion for Carter Holt in 2006, Hart has sold the company's forests and head office and has built a global packaging business focused on drinks packaging.
The wood products business now for sale employs thousands of people at 12 sites in New Zealand and six in Australia. The sites process timber and manufacture plywood, laminated veneer lumber and interior decorative materials.
The sale of the wood products business comes at a time when there have been predictions of a recovery in log prices and ahead of an announcement of a carbon trading scheme this week.
Analysts have always said that Hart's ultimate success in making money out of Carter Holt will depend on the strategy for the company's four pulp mills.
The company disappointed investors for decades under previous ownership and the break-up of the diversified conglomerate is seen as a chance to build a business of world scale in a chosen segment like packaging.
Hart is famous for not talking to the media except when he is selling a business in public share sales. He is New Zealand's richest man.
Under previous management, Carter Holt's wood products business was involved in a scandal involving selling wood that was weaker than advertised.

Forestry Standard Raises The Bar

The Australian Forestry Standard (AFS) has been fully recognised as an Australian Standard after a rigorous three-year review process.
“This is by far and away the best way to demonstrate that Australian forests are sustainably managed to the highest environmental criteria,” the chairman of Australian Forestry Standard Ltd Geoff Gorrie said.
“The scientific rigour and performance orientation in the Australian Forestry Standard builds on the input of stakeholders from the forest management, wood processing and manufacturing, unions, contractors, forest users, forest professionals, environmental and indigenous interests,” he said.
There have been major changes in the AFS from its initial 2003 version; the issue of broad-scale conversion of native forests to plantation or non-vegetation cover has been removed for certification.
Other major changes to the standard include more restricted usage of chemicals; availability of summary reports on certification audits; recognition of environmental, economic, social and indigenous interests at the forest management plan level; recognition that forests are part of a wider array of land users in catchments; and a more comprehensive listing of definitions to support the nine criteria and 40 requirements of the AFS.
Acting chief executive of the National Association of Forest Industries (NAFI) Allan Hansard said the AFS recognition now proved criticism of the standard by radical conservation groups was unwarranted.
The AFS is recognised internationally as part of the Program for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC), which is the world’s largest forest certification system.
“It is indisputably the best guarantee for consumers wanting to buy forest and wood products from sustainably managed sources,” Hansard said.
“It also means green building rating schemes can endorse with confidence AFS certified timber as a guarantee of sustainability. This is important as the AFS is the only scheme which has certified native forests in Australia.
“The AFS has again shown that it is the leading forestry certification standard by raising the bar and has set a challenge for other forest certification schemes to follow.”
Geoff Gorrie said the achievement by AFS was a watershed in the management of Australia’s forests. He urged all forest managers and owners to voluntarily seek certification to AFS.

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