Lion leaves to join the world

By GEOFF SENESCALL

Lion Nathan has outgrown New Zealand and is heading to Australia.

Long-time company executive and present chairman Douglas Myers expressed a sense of sadness to the Business Herald following the release of the company's interim results yesterday, when the move was announced.

"I am a New Zealander and always will be. I feel a loss. But this is part of growing and being part of the world," he said, adding that he would continue to live here.

It was certainly a decision Mr Myers endorsed and one that was made many years ago when, under his stewardship, the company decided to go international.

Over the past decade, Mr Myers said, Lion had "transformed from a diversified company with virtually all of its business in New Zealand, to an international brewer."

Australia now made up 70 per cent of Lion's assets and the New Zealand shareholding in the company had slowly declined from 85 per cent to 15 per cent.

Lion's decision to move its head office in Sydney follows the recent move by two other top 10 companies overseas. Early this year, Brierley Investments took its head office to Singapore and Fernz Corporation, now Nufarm, went to Australia.

Other top 10 companies are understood to be considering a similar move.

Lion chief executive Gordon Cairns said the decision to go had nothing to do with the environment in New Zealand.

"This is not a political statement. This is not an economic statement. It is not a formula that we would say should be followed slavishly by everyone.

"It is what we, as a board, deemed was right for our business at the time.

"It was a question of where you want your people to be, relative to where your business is. I've always been a great believer that you can't be an absentee landlord. If 70 per cent of your business is in Australia, that is where you want your head office staff to be."

The move also gave Lion greater access to larger and more liquid capital markets.

Mr Cairns said the head office departure should not be viewed as a lack of commitment to New Zealand.

"We are still committed here and we have put our money where our mouth is.

"We have $1 billion of assets here. We have 1000 employees that we have to look after. We pay over $200 million in tax a year.

"This year we spent $11 million renewing our business with capital expenditure. We spend over $5 million dollars a year in sponsorship.

"Those numbers are not going down, they are going up."

On the broader question of the climate in New Zealand for corporates, Mr Myers was more outspoken than Mr Cairns.

Mr Myers, a former chairman of the Business Roundtable, said New Zealand had to do better.

"The economy has to be better. We have to be more welcoming for entrepreneurs," he said.


The challenge was to make this country more relevant to the rest of the world.

To do that, "we have to be better than anyone else," Mr Myers said. "I think we are so small and so isolated that unless we are in people's faces, we are going to be ignored."

A shareholders' meeting will be held on May 18 to vote on the shift. If 75 per cent approval is gained Lion will transfer its corporate head office and primary listing to Australia on June 2. The move affects some 20 head office staff in Auckland.