C.P.D. looks abroad for expansion

Press, 30 August 1980, Page 18

C.P.D. looks abroad for expansion

PA Wellington Cable Price Downer, Ltd, has formed a joint venture company with Harding Signals, Ltd, to acquire existing Australian and New Zealand manufacturing facilities to supply micro - processorbased technology products for local and South East Asian markets. The new company, Aquila Electronics, Ltd, will take over for about $3.7m in cash, the Lower Hutt-based Harding Signals, and an Australian organisation, Eagle Signal Company of Australia Proprietary, Ltd. Harding is the largest supplier of modern traffic signal equipment in New Zealand, and Eagle is Australia’s largest traffic signa! manufacturer. Cable Price Downer, Ltd, the holding company for the widely diversified Cable Price Downer group, will own 70 per cent of Aquila, with the remaining 30 per cent being held by current senior executives and shareholders of Hardings. The move includes a manufacturing rights and technology access agreement and a product licensing agreement between Aquila and the huge United States-based Gulf and Western Corporation, the present owner of Eagle Signals. The sale of Eagle Signals is integral to the agreements which give Aquila access to products and manufacturing rights covering the latest micro-technology systems. The agreements provide exclusive rights for Australasian, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong and the. South Pacific. The move will permit a much greater degree of rationalisation of product systems than is at present possible in both Harding and Eagle operations. This .will mean a significant increase in

trans-Tasman trade. The newl company will expand existing, manufacturing and distribu-i tion facilities to cater for the! potentially huge market ini new technology systems in] Singapore, Hong Kong,l Malaysia, Indonesia and the South Pacific. This will open up an entirely new and significant export field for’ New Zealand. The chairman and chief executive officer of Cable Price Downer (Mr R. W. Steele) announced the joint venture, after returning from talks in the United States with Gulf and Western. During these talks, further plans for close future cooperation in South East Asia and Pacific areas were discussed.

Mr Steele said that one of the many significant features of the joint venture was that it called for an increased work-force in the existing Harding and Eagle operations. “This is an excellent illustration of the capacity of new technology industries to boost emplojmient in New Zealand,” he said. Mr Steele said that the start of the joint venture operations awaited only the formal aporoval of the appropriate Australian authorities.

; It is anticipated that the board of Aquila Electronics will consist of three Cable Price Downer nominees and three representatives of the i minority shareholders. The chief executive for the new company will be Hardings’ present general manager (Mr L. T. Nixon) who will be based in Melbourne. New Zealand operations will come under the control of Mr G. M. Sealing, at present assistant general manager of • Hardings; Mr Steele emphasised that : the company’s strategy for I the future is based on inicreasing its overseas activiIties. , ,

“We have a lead, position in the $20,000,000 contract for airfield construction fof the United States navy on Palau Island, and are investigating major project possi-: bilities in Papua New' Guinea. Malaysia and Fiji.

“Next month our civil engineering team goes to Saudi Arabia at the invitation of substantial Saudi interests who have indicated their wish to work with us.” “On the local scene the long-delayed third pot-line at Tiwai Point is now going ahead and this in conjunction with other major capital works will enable us to raise activity in our construction and engineering divisions,” Mr Steele said.