Foreigners queue to buy NZ land

By ANNE GIBSON

Overseas interests were granted permission to buy $1.4 billion worth of New Zealand businesses and land in June - the biggest monthly total this year.

Overseas Investment Commission chief executive Stephen Dawe said the June record was due to one big deal which he could not disclose, but which was in agriculture and spanned many regions.

In the five months to May, the commission approved the sale of $800 million worth of New Zealand business and property to foreigners, who bought 44,000ha of land, Dawe said.

The commission cited the Official Information Act to withhold information on the details of 12 deals worth more than $1 billion which it approved in June.

Applicants can be granted confidentiality if they can prove disclosure could be commercially damaging.

Dawe said the June tally was by far the largest this year.

But the commission estimated that only $154 million of the $1,433,039,666 involved in the transactions approved would stay in New Zealand.

Most of the transactions in June involved overseas sellers as well as buyers, so the money flowed between them but not into New Zealand.

The Campaign Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa says the sale of New Zealand property and businesses is eroding the country's wealth and independence.

It says the commission is a rubber stamp for foreigners to take control, and trans-national corporations are making huge profits from New Zealand.

Ngai Tamanuhiri protesters reached Parliament this week to oppose the sale of Gisborne landmark Young Nicks Head to an American millionaire.

The single largest deal approved in June and made public was the $11.1 million sale of 40ha of Blenheim agricultural land, sold to Beringer Blass Wine Estates of Australia by New Zealand's Ponder Estate Wines and Ponder Partnership.

"The Beringer Blass/Matua Valley Group is one of the top six New Zealand wine producers and is involved in all aspects of the winemaking process," the commission said.

"It wants to acquire the business of Ponder Estate which is a producer of premium wines and olive oil and has regularly attained gold medal status and international acclaim for its wine and olive oil.

The next biggest deal was $4.1 million paid by Orere Holdings and Anna Van Eeden-Casey joint venture, half owned by US interests.

Anna Charlott Van Eeden-Casey sold 504ha of land in Kawakawa Bay Coast Rd, Orere Point in South Auckland, to the United States venture, which wants to plant it in forestry.

Mapua Leisure Park - a New Zealand business - wants to sell a 12.3ha holiday and camping ground at Mapua near Nelson to United-States controlled interests for $4 million.

Among the other deals approved:

* Singaporean-controlled Universal Homes was cleared to buy 15ha of land at 219-305 Whangaparaoa Rd north of Auckland for $1.9 million. Universal said it would develop low-density housing on the land and set aside about 6ha as a reserve.

* United States-controlled GMO Glenburn paid $1.8 million to Dutch interests for 630ha of land at Craigie Lea Rd, Masterton, for forestry.

* H L Ware, also of the US, was cleared to buy 2.1ha of land at Potts Rd at Whitford near Auckland from New Zealand interests for $1.7 million.

* An American organisation got approval to buy 6.4ha of land near Wanaka for $1.6 million.

* Buzawa Partnership of the US has clearance to buy 314ha of Wairoa land from New Zealand's Willow Grove for $1 million. The land was planted in radiata pine trees in 1996.

* Australasian Food Holdings, which has Australian shareholders, bought land in the Bay of Plenty/Coromandel, Canterbury, Manawatu, South Auckland and Waikato regions. The price was confidential.

* Japan's Bayview Developments was cleared to buy 7.5ha of land at Whakatane for $880,000. It operates a nearby 22ha property, which has kiwifruit and deer breeding operations.

* JPS II of the US got approval to buy 415ha of Hunterville land for $775,000. JPS is part of a group that manages 40,000ha of Californian land. Its main activities are harvesting and managing trees for sale, and it plans to develop a commercial forest on the Hunterville holding.

* The Singaporean-controlled Evill Lawson Partnership has approval to buy 7ha of land near Blenheim for $579,000 and convert the grazing property into a vineyard. It will mainly plant Sauvignon Blanc grapevines.

* British interests got clearance for a $695,000 deal involving 7.9ha of land at Kerikeri in Northland.

* US-controlled Waihi Gold has approval to buy 13 residential properties around its mine at Waihi for $388,000. The Overseas Investment Commission said this deal resulted from last year's mine collapse.

"An agreement has been reached between the applicant, the Hauraki District Council and the Earthquake Commission to enable compensation and/or relocation for the affected property owners," the commission said.

"As part of this agreement, the affected properties will be transferred to the applicant.

"The proposed acquisition of the properties will be beneficial in adding a buffer between the mine and other surrounding residential areas," the commission said.

Overseas Investment Commission

Campaign Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa