Tasman boys chip interest

Press, 13 December 1986, Page 34

Tasman boys chip interest

The Fletcher Challenge subsidiary, Tasman Forestry, Ltd, has purchased for cash from Carter Holt Harvey, Ltd, a 39 per cent interest in the North Island’s only export wood chip facility at Mount Maunganui. The chip exporter, Wood Export, Ltd, was founded by Mr Keith Hunt, whose interests were later purchased by Carter Holt, Ltd. In the new shareholding arrangement, C. Itoh and Company (New Zealand) will retain its 22 per cent holding while Tasman Forestry and Carter Holt Harvey share the management control and hold 39 per cent each. The original company, which contained some for-

est interests, will be dissolved and replaced by a new company based on the wood chip assets only. “As a major supplier of logs for chips we want to secure a strategic position in the only site able to export,” said Mr Dennis Neilson, general manager (marketing and supply) of Tasman Forestry in Rotorua. “It also gives us flexibility in case there is any stoppage in the mills we supply in . the Bay of Plenty. We don’t want to leave logs on the ground and risk their quality.” Early this year, C. Itoh signed a five-year contract with Wood Export to supply four to five shipments of chips a year to Japan.