Fletcher Challenge

"Sometimes, the corporations created their own opportunities. Omnicorp was symbolic of the time. It was New Zealand’s largest public float when it listed in 1985, with its three major shareholders being Equiticorp and Chase Corporation, each with a 20 per cent stake, and Rainbow Corporation with 15 per cent. The remaining 45 per cent sold to the public. Its directors were Heatley, Allan Hawkins, Peter Francis and Colin Reynolds. The names of the directors and the shareholding by their respective companies were all that Omnicorp had to its name besides its issued capital of $50 million. It had no other assets and no stated raison d’être except to allow its three major shareholders to make investments they could not make individually. Although it was not said publicly at the time, the main shareholders were interested in acquiring Fletcher Challenge if they could. It never happened. But whatever its intentions, or lack of them, investors flocked and its 50c shares went straight to $1.50 on listing."

"The Forestry Corporation, meantime, generated much satisfaction for Gibbs because the stunning turnaround in results continued. It also provided the opportunity for some contact sport with Fletcher Challenge, the nation’s largest public company. Fletchers had inherited cutting rights to large areas of forest from Tasman Pulp and Paper, with which it had merged in 1981. Gibbs was incensed that politicians, going back to the 1950s, had ‘let them get away with murder’ with contracts that had no escalation clause for inflation for 25 years and other such details.[38](private://read/01jrsfvkjy84rkprtbz9amfvj8/#rw-num-note-477346-006497775-38) He was determined to claw back some value for the Forestry Corporation and had lawyers trawl through the contracts to see what rights and powers they had."

"With a likely price tag of at least $2.5 billion, Telecom itself was beyond the capacity of any New Zealand company to buy on its own. Gibbs thought Fletcher Challenge, the biggest local conglomerate, might be interested — ‘Hugh Fletcher,’ he says, ‘wanted to buy everything, at a bargain price’ — but even they would need to partner with someone. The task therefore was to find a suitable international partner. So while Farmer was concentrating on negotiations with Telecom over Netways, Gibbs began to search on his own in the early months of 1989. He soon got wind that merchant bankers Fay, Richwhite were also tapping the walls."