By ANDREA FOX
Cash-rich Chinese and Japanese food companies are thought to be the only potential buyers with enough money to risk sinking into New Zealand's biggest pipfruit business, Mr Apple, to be put on the market by South Canterbury Finance receivers.
Industry sources said with serious concerns about this year's apple returns because of the strength of the Kiwi dollar against the US dollar and the UK pound sterling, there was unlikely to be any New Zealand or Australian party with deep enough pockets to buy the commodity apple producer.
Mr Apple's 20 orchards, three pack houses and a cool store could be marketed for between $20 million to $30 million depending on its debt levels, an industry specialist said.
"It'd be a brave man to invest heavily in commodity apples right now, it's not a good formula for making a lot of money."
A Chinese bid for the orchard land could spark another round of New Zealand public opposition similar to that around Chinese company Natural Dairy's ongoing effort to buy the 8000 hectare in-receivership Crafar farm estate in the central North Island.
The deal needs Overseas Investment Office consent.
Mr Apple, a grower and exporter, is not in receivership. Neither is its owner Scales Holdings, which is 80 per cent owned by South Canterbury Finance, put into receivership in August.
But receivers McGrathNicol have confirmed that Mr Apple is among a range of South Canterbury Finance companies going on the block.
Tony Gibbs, chairman of New Zealand's biggest fresh fruit company Turners & Growers said his listed company was unlikely to be interested in buying Mr Apple.
"There is a price at which we could be interested in parts but we are not an orchardist. We are a marketer, though having said that we have some orchards. But we have no great vision to get into commodity apple production," Gibbs said.
Turners markets apples for Mr Apple under its own Enza brand in Europe and the US.
Mr Apple produced about 2 million - 2.5m boxes of apples a year from its Hawke's Bay orchards, with Turners marketing about 1m of them, Turners chief executive Jeff Wesley said.
Turners sold for Mr Apple to circumvent sales restrictions imposed by European supermarkets and because Turners had an established office and network in Europe with 11 staff, he said.
