Buyer pulls out of deal to buy Tourism Holdings assets at Waitomo

Monday, 3 December 2018

Tourism Holdings is keeping all its Waitomo assets after a deal fell through.

Tourism Holdings chief executive has downplayed the significance of the cancelled sale of some of the company's Waitomo assets

In October the company announced it was discussing the sale of the Kiwi Experience business and some of the Discover Waitomo businesses, including Black Water Rafting, Ruakuri and the Waitomo Homestead.

Tourism Holdings is focusing on its world wide rental van network.

Tourism Holdings is preparing for major new investments overseas and the money from the sale of the assets would have been reinvested in new acquisitions.

'We were always happy to hold these businesses. The opportunity arose to sell them to what we thought was the right operator at the right price so it's disappointing given the effort that went into it,' chief executive Grant Webster said.

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Tourism Holdings and the buyer, who remains unnamed, were unable to agree on the price, Webster said.

But the failure to finalise the deal wouldn't have any effect on the overall business, Webster said.

THL has remained clear in its view of the value of the tourism businesses, strategically, economically and socially, he said.

'We have received offers for these businesses for many years and we are sure we will continue to do so.

'Just as we always have, we will only ever consider any interest if we believe it is right for the business and the teams.

'However, the focus now is to ensure there are no distractions for anyone, including our customers, as we head into the current high season under THL ownership.'

Major recent initiatives included the acquisition of Fairfax Industries which manufactures fibreglass vehicle bodies, further investment in computer and mobile phone applications, and possible business purchases in New Zealand, the US and UK.

At the recent annual meeting chairman Rob Campbell outlined environmental initiatives to reduce the company's carbon footprint by 3.4 per cent across our New Zealand and Australian operations.

'In Australia, we also eliminated the use of 94,000 plastic bags from our operations. These are just first steps and we have much more to do. We've set ambitious sustainability targets, including a 20 per cent reduction in our total emissions by 2025 and for at least 5 per cent of our total rental vehicle fleet to be low-emission vehicles by 2020.'

The company was on track for a net profit after tax of $50 million for the 2019020 financial year, he said.