New Zealand’s biggest forest products company Carter Holt Harvey (CHH) is rumoured to be up for sale only a year after its last change of ownership.
The company’s owner the Rank Group, run by New Zealand’s richest man Graeme Hart, is thought to have received a number of expressions of interest.
Australia’s largest hardwood producer Gunns Ltd, which recently took control of Auspine, has been named as one of the interested companies by Australian news channel ABC Online.
TTJ contacted CHH but the company said it was unable to make any comment at this time.
CHH employs about 10,000 people across New Zealand, Australia and Asia. It manufactures and markets timber, plywood, LVL and a range of interior decorative products.
The Rank Group bought CHH for NZ$3.3bn in 2006. Soon after the purchase it sold the company’s forest assets to the US-based Hancock Timber Group for about NZ$1.5bn.
