23 May 2013

GPG to hold next annual meeting in London

2:06 pm on 23 May 2013

Guinness Peat Group is likely to hold its next annual shareholders' meeting in London, chairman Rob Campbell says.

GPG is headquartered in London but most of its more than 24,000 shareholders live in New Zealand.

The company held its annual meeting on Thursday, only the third it has held in New Zealand.

The lack of local meetings was a major bone of contention when board control was wrested from founder and former chairman Sir Ron Brierley in September 2010.

Mr Campbell says he expects GPG's level of involvement with the British market will increase significantly, now its major asset is the multinational Coats threads business.

He says most of GPG's assets, other than Coats and its 33.6% shareholding in insurance company Tower, have been realised.

When GPG decided on a wind-down process in early 2011, gradually selling off all its assets other than Coats, it had about 55 investments in Australia, New Zealand and Britain, most of which were significant shareholdings in illiquid companies, Mr Campbell says.

The assets were valued at £677 million. GPG has now realised £622 million worth of assets and its Tower stake is currently valued at about £70 million.