When will they start a trading bank?

Press, 24 October 1980, Page 17

When will they start a trading bank?

(Ex NZPA Staff Corres- • • pondent) Tokyo The . 64-dollar question being asked about the proposed Fletcher-Challenge merger by some 40 New Zealand senior company executives visiting Tokyo is when the new conglomerate will be given authority to start a trading bank. There seemed agreement among more than 15 of them interviewed at the New Zealand-Japan businessmen’s council meeting here that it would be logical for| the group to seek such a licence. ■ •

It was thought by several executives that operation of a trading bank would fit well with the conglomerate’s corporate activities and would be a natural extension of its current interests.

The executives . interviewed sought ■ anonymity but none expressed opposition to the merger and all believed it in the national interest that the two corporate giants on the New Zealand business scene get together. „ , j, Most of New Zealand s top trading companies are represented at the council meeting by top level executives. They pressed in yesterday morning on Mr A. B. Downey, • a director of Fletcher Holdings, for copies of statements announcing the two companies’ intentions. Surprise was evident. But one top textiles executive

said that he believed the merger would be beneficial in preventing further corporate competition — with Challenge and Fletchers each seeking to gain economic advantage over the other by acquiring smaller companies dove-tailing with their existing operations. There seemed widespread relief that the Fletchers’ take-over bid for Carter Holt would be dropped. Several company executives who believed it worthwhile that Carter Holt continue as a separate identity ‘added, however, that they expected . further mergers would take place among major New Zealand companies within the next few months. This was likely, they said, because of the financial restraints inherent in the economic difficulties New Zealand faced.