Gough family sells Caterpillar dealership after nearly a century

Tuesday, 13 August 2019

One of the machines sold in recent years - a Caterpillar 320DL hydraulic excavator.

The wealthy Gough family has sold Gough Group for $211 million to a Malaysian company after a 90-year history in New Zealand owning the Caterpillar heavy machinery dealership.

The Gough family fortune is collectively valued at nearly $400m but members have been split in recent years and been embroiled in a High Court battle for control over the family trusts that controlled the company.

Family members include property developers and investors Antony and Tracy who are brothers, and their nephew and son respectively, James, who is a Christchurch City councillor.

Gough Group employs about 950 people across its network in more than 50 locations in Australia and New Zealand.

**READ MORE:

* Gough boss to stand down after decade

* Millionaire Gough family's power struggle

Christchurch-based property investor and developer Antony Gough in his office on the site of his The Terrace development in central Christchurch.

* Gough Group moves ahead with concrete deal**

The buyer is Sime Darby Berhad, one of the largest Caterpillar dealers globally and listed on the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange. It entered the New Zealand market in 1999 when it purchased Continental Car Services and has a range of commercial interests in the transport sector.

Christchurch City councillor James Gough, left, and his father Tracy Gough.

Over the past year Gough Group grew its revenue by more than 18 per cent $540m from higher sales sales for its Caterpillar and transport and materials handling businesses.

The conditional agreement depends on Overseas Investment Office approval but is expected to be completed by the end of September, Sime Darby said.

The company is known as Sime Darby Motors in New Zealand and operates under the Continental Cars and City Nissan dealerships in Auckland representing brands such as BMW, Porsche, Volkswagen, Audi, Ferrari and Nissan.

It also has a commercial transport arm representing brands such as Volvo, Hino, Mack and UD Trucks.

The New Zealand Caterpillar dealership is one of the oldest dealerships of Caterpillar equipment outside of the United States.

Gough Group also sells to the construction, infrastructure, transport and power industries, with brands such as SAF, Palfinger and WABCO.

The purchase will complement Sime Darby Berhad's other businesses in New Zealand and Australia.

It has a workforce of more than 20,000 employees and operations in 18 countries across Asia Pacific.

'The Gough Group transaction provides a rare opportunity for us to enhance our relationship with Caterpillar, and gain exposure to the construction and forestry sectors in New Zealand,' Sime Darby Berhad's group chief executive officer, Dato' Jeffri Salim Davidson, said.

In Australia, Sime Darby Berhad is represented by Hastings Deering, one of Caterpillar's leading dealers, as well as through Sime Darby Motors' dealerships for BMW, Volvo, Ferrari and Rolls Royce in Brisbane and Porsche in Sydney.