By PHILIPPA STEVENSON agricultural editor
Kiwifruit exporter Zespri is to move its head office from Auckland to Tauranga.
Executive chairman Doug Voss said the company had decided all its New Zealand functions should be in the main growing area, where most shareholders lived.
The company's global operations make it the world's largest marketer
of kiwifruit, and it is in the process of extending its business to a year-round trade using fruit grown in the Northern Hemisphere.
Mr Voss said that while there were costs involved in the relocation of the head office, the rationalisation of offices was in the company's long-term interests.
Meanwhile, Te Puke-based Seeka Kiwifruit Industries is to buy the post-harvest operator Waimapu Packhouse and Coolstore, formed by Mr Voss and Wilson McGillivray family interests in 1983.
The acquisition will make Seeka one of the two largest suppliers of New Zealand kiwifruit, with around 15 per cent of the total crop.
The purchase will be paid for by a $3.42 million one-for-three rights issue, a renounceable offer of one new ordinary share (at $2 per share) for every three existing shares held at November 16.
Seeka's two major shareholders, who between them own 29 per cent of existing shares, have committed to take up their full entitlements and underwrite up to 82.5 per cent of shares in the issue.
As well as paying for the acquisition, issue proceeds will be used to develop Seeka's post-harvest facilities.
Seeka shares are quoted on the NZSE's Unlisted Securities Market. The shares last traded at $2.45.
