Gear to sell property

Press, 19 December 1981, Page 21

Gear to sell property

PA Wellington Gear Meat Company. Ltd, which no longer has any connection with the beleaguered Gear Meat in Petone, will sell its interests in Pastoral House on The Terrace.

The chairman (Mr J. D. Pottinger) told shareholders at the annual meeting that the price would be considerably in excess of book value but “as discussions only took place yesterday with the two partners,” the Dairy Board and Dalgetys, “I am not in a position to tell shareholder what price we might expect to get.” Gear Meat Company has a 5/36 share of the total value of the building, and the general manager of the Dairy Board has indicated that they will be prepared to purchase it at valuation, said Mr Pottinger. “The provisions of the partnership agreement provide that the purchase of any partners' share may take place over four months and it may be that long before we have an actual final result,” he said.

Gear has also purchased a new investment, all of J. C. Hutton (New Zealand) shares.

Huttons has operated in New Zealand for 80 years and is a wholly-owned subsi-

diary of Huttons. Ltd. of Melbourne. (Brierleys is involved in a dispute over the take-over of Huttons in Australia, through lEL; Mr B. A. Hancox of Brierleys sits on Gear’s board.) Mr Pottinger says that the purchase price is about $lO million and this will be financed first from the cash arising out of the realisations of the Gear Company’s assets, as well as a term loan from the Bank of New Zealand, and also an issue of ordinary shares to Brierley Investments, Ltd. “The issue which will amount to 2,659,000 ordinary shares of 100 c at par will be put before shareholders at the extraordinary general meeting on January 15, and at the same time the ordinary shares capital of the company will be increased from $5 million to $lO million.

"It is not proposed that shareholders be offered any of these shares and shareholders will be asked to pass a resolution at that meeting,” Mr Pottinger said.

He added that the directors hope that the acquistion of Huttons will give it every prospect of future profitability and enable a resumption of dividends being paid to shareholders.