TTP investors face fast decision on future

Shareholders in Trans Tasman Property have been given the choice of staying in the much-diminished New Zealand company or swapping their scrip for shares in a new Asian developer.

Singapore-based developer Trans Tasman Properties vacated Auckland this year to be nearer its Hong Kong-based majority shareholder.

Now, it has issued a prospectus and investment statement to local shareholders detailing a major restructuring deal.

Many of those shareholders bought into the entity founded by Sir Bob Jones of Wellington many years ago.

The shareholders have until December 16 to decide whether to swap their holdings for the new British Virgin Islands-based company, Asian Growth Properties.

The company will be listed on the London Stock Exchange's Alternative Investment Market, a less regulated forum than the main exchange.

Shareholders meet in Auckland just a day before the offer expires - timing that one analyst questioned, saying the meeting should have been held when the offer opened.

Trans Tasman executive chairman Don Fletcher wrote to shareholders that Asian Growth Properties would have assets of $404.2 million. He told them the restructuring had been "unanimously approved" by Trans Tasman's directors.

He said if the changes went ahead, Trans Tasman would have $101.1 million in assets, solely in Australasia, and would remain listed on NZX.

Jesse Lu's Hong Kong-based SEA Holdings NZ controlled 64.64 per cent of Trans Tasman and supported the planned change.

* December 15, 10am, special TTP shareholder meeting, Alexandra Park Function Centre at Greenlane, Auckland.