COMMERCIAL Slim loan for Carter Holt’s Napier mill

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32885, 7 April 1972, Page 17

COMMERCIAL Slim loan for Carter Holt’s Napier mill

(New Zealand Pres* Association) AUCKLAND, April 6. A loan agrement worth -Sil million for the timber and refined groundwood pulp mill being built at Whirinaki, near Napier, has been signed in Japan.

The Japanese partners in; the project have asked for work on the mill to be speeded up aiead of the scheduled datt of March, 1973; there are also indications that the Japanese may be interested widening the scope of the project. Mr K. F. L; Carter, managing director of Carter Oji Kokusaku Pin Pacific, Ltd, the New Jealand-Japanese company which is building the' mill, has ju>t returned from Japan from signing the loan' agreement. He was accompanied on his , visit by DrT. J. Sprott, tech-1; nical director of Carter Con-!;

rsolidated, Ltd, and Mr K. • Honekura, the Japanese chief i engineer associated with the i mill in New Zealand. , “The Napier mill is now ■ regarded as top priority by ' our Japanese partners, Oji i Paper Company, Ltd, and Kokusaku Pulp Industries, Ltd,” said Mr Carter. “Fair agreement “We have been asked to expedite the construction .programme to the very maximum of our ability. “The Japanese companies (have reassessed the economic situation in the light of the recent United States dollar ■ devaluation. Their future policy involves the commissioning of the Napier plant pat the earliest possible date. ■ “Another important result from our talks,” said Mr Carter, “is recognition by our Japanese partners to include an early expansion of the plant as first-line priority in their planning.” |l The $ll million loan was i described by Mr Carter as a very fair agreement to everyone concerned. The money has been borrowed from the Import-Export Bank of ■ Japan, in association with

other industrial and commercial banks, through the Oj< and Kokusaku partners. The loan has been raised as one of 4004 million yen, but is expressed in New Zealand dollars, and will be drawn in New Zealand currency. The $ll million covers all requirements for the first stage of the Whirinaki mill; drawing rights ultimately may be in excess of $ll million if additional sums are required for specific purposes. The loan agreement has the approval of both the New Zealand and Japanese authorities, and covets an intial period of 10 years. Finance secure “We have a period of grace on repayment in the early years of the agreement,” said Mr Carter. “This, together with a fixed interest rate which is on a most favourable basis, gives us a really solid basis on which to work.” As the principal lenders were also the contract buyers from the mill, the financial structure of the venture was secure, Mr Carter added; in terms of capital equity interest Carter-Holt have 60 per cent, and the Japanese companies 40 per cent of the project.