End of era as Fisher & Paykel splits

By CHRIS DANIELS

At a packed and occasionally emotional annual meeting in Ellerslie yesterday, Fisher & Paykel shareholders voted to split the manufacturing icon into two companies.

The move to spin off the successful healthcare division from the whiteware business was announced last year.

One of the new companies, called Fisher & Paykel Healthcare Corporation, will be listed on the New Zealand Stock Exchange and the US Nasdaq exchange.

Sister company Fisher & Paykel Appliances Holdings will be listed on the New Zealand exchange and will hold just under 20 per cent of Fisher & Paykel Healthcare Corporation's shares.

The split needs only the approval of the High Court before coming into force. Existing shareholders will get 528 shares in the healthcare company and 550 shares in the appliance company for every 1000 shares.

Company managing director and chief executive Gary Paykel said Fisher & Paykel management was closely monitoring events in the US, but the health products field had not been damaged by the economic shock following the New York terrorist attacks.

However, there was provision to defer the process, if conditions deteriorated.

Some attending yesterday's meeting described it as the end of an era for the company.

One board retiree was Maurice Paykel, aged 87, who told shareholders that the company he co-founded in 1934 was stronger than it had ever been.

He paid tribute to the people who had worked for him over those years, saying they were hard-working, loyal and innovative.

Doreen Norton, who joined the company in 1944, stood in the meeting to congratulate and thank Mr Paykel and his colleagues.

"No one in those days, in their wildest dreams, would have thought they were writing the opening chapters of such a phenomenal success story," she said.

Fisher & Paykel shares yesterday closed down 5c at $13.35.