New Zealand's Maui Capital agrees Pedersen trade sale

Maui acquired a 50% stake in Pedersen in late 2014 via its NZ$250 million ($171 million) Aqua Fund, which targets companies with valuations in a range of NZ$30-200 million. According to local media, the company was worth about NZ$37 million as of March last year.

Pedersen handles more than 8 million tonnes of wood fiber a year in the form of logs, wood chip and hog fuel. The company employs 140 people across Australia and New Zealand. It also maintains a wood chipping plant in Fiji and an existing joint venture with C3, a forestry subsidiary of Linx.

“Pedersen will enable our organization to grow its services to forest owners and wood processing businesses,” Anthony Jones, Linx’s CEO, said in a statement. “In addition, Pedersen’s capabilities and services complement C3’s existing customer offering and will extend our reach to a customer base in diversified global markets.”

The deal reflects a strong theme among private equity firms in New Zealand’s middle market in which local companies are professionalized with a view to attracting Australian and global counterparts as buyers. Recent exits in this vein include Pencarrow Private Equity selling clothing brand Icebreaker to US competitor VF Corporation and Waterman Capital selling its 50% stake in HealthLink to Clanwilliam, and Irish medical technology specialist.

Maui was founded in 2008 and focuses on midcap companies that are said to have achieved critical mass in their development with proven track records across a range of primary and consumer-facing industries. Portfolio companies include insurance provider Partners Life, which has received a NZ$200 million investment from The Blackstone Group.

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• Topics
• Australasia
• Industrials
• Trade sale
• New Zealand
• Maui Capital
• Commodities