$1.5M Govt loan for Aorangi

Press, 20 June 1984, Page 2

$1.5M Govt loan for Aorangi

Parliamentary reporter The Government has agreed to help the West Coast plywood factory, Aorangi Forest Industries, Ltd, with a $1.5 million loan. The loan will be made by the Development Finance Corporation, according to the office of 'the Minister of Regional Development, Mr Birch. A spokesman said the company had sought assistance through a secured debt giving no rights to equity. In a statement, Mr Birch said that the offer was subject to a number of conditions being met, and he believed these conditions were acceptable to the company. His short statement, confirming the Government’s offer of $1.5 million, was

made, he said, to correct a misreported comment which appeared in “The Press” yesterday. In yesterday’s report, the Prime Minister, Sir Robert Muldoon, was reported as saying that the Aorangi proposals had been sent back to Government departments for further investigations. Sir Robert’s actual words — that the proposals had been passed on, to “the parties” — were misheard as he made them while he was walking out of a press conference.

Westland Industrial Corporation is the name of the new company which will take over the shareholding of Aorangi Forest Industries, says the Greymouth reporter of “The Press.” The deputy chairman of

the company, Mr A. D. Ford, a Wellington lawyer, said that the company would be 100 per cent West Coast-owned. Two directors have yet to be named to the new company’s board by the Development Finance Corporation but others already appointed are the chairman, Mr G. K. A. Ferguson, of Waipuna; his brother, Mr Jack Ferguson, of Hokitika; and Mr R. Taylor, a Wellington accountant. Mr B. Stanley-Jackson will be managing director. Mr Ford said yesterday that steps were now being taken for the ordering of new log supplies. The start towards full production would start on June 29, and should be achieved within nine days.