Pacdun Set To Declare Sale Of Pacific
The Age
Friday November 23, 2001
Pacific Dunlop is expected soon to announce the completion of the sale of its Pacific Brands clothing, footwear and sporting goods division to private equity group CVC Asia.
The sale, for up to $800million, has been coming for some time, but haggling over the price is believed to have held it up.
An e-mail allegedly sent to PacDun employees telling them the deal had been done excited market speculation yesterday, but the absence of a price left investors in the dark.
PacDun shares rose one cent to 84cents. A more definite move is expected when the sale is publicly announced, depending on the price for the division, which is a market leader in many areas of operation.
Calls to PacDun senior executives and the company's merchant bank advisers were not returned yesterday, indicating the e-mail to staff may have been released too soon.
Such information is market sensitive and by law must be released to the Australian Stock Exchange first.
PacDun recently completed the sale of its automotive parts distribution group, including the famous Repco brand, for $251million.
The buyers included Macquarie Direct Investment, GS Private Equity, Gresham Private Equity and management.
It is not clear whether the success of the Pacific Brands deal with CVC Asia is linked to a widely expected asset sale by CVC Capital Partners' main Australian play, Amatek Holdings.
Amatek is the old BTR building materials group, which CVC Capital Partners bought in March 1998 for $1.62billion.
It had planned to float the group, but the float was called off after about $7million in fees had been racked up.
Fluctuations in the building and construction markets since have meant that Amatek Holdings has been struggling to wash its face.
But it is believed the company has been renegotiating with BHP Steel for the sale of Stramit steel building products company.
© 2001 The Age
