Todd Property Group sells Kāpiti Coast airport, major developments in Auckland and Christchurch
Wednesday, 2 October 2019
Major New Zealand property developments – including a Kāpiti Coast airport – as well as hundreds of hectares of land have been sold by the Todd Property Group.
The sale includes residential developments Pegasus township north of Christchurch, Auckland's Stonefields, and undeveloped land in Hawke's Bay and Whangarei.
The developments have been sold to the recently-formed NZPropCo Ltd [NZPL], a New Zealand-based investment group.
NZPL is made up of the New Zealand-owned Templeton Group, UK-based Alvarium Investments and NZ rich-lister Ben Gough's Tailorspace Limited.
**READ MORE:
* Concern for the future of Kāpiti Coast Airport
* Three-storey hotel planned for Pegasus Golf Course
* Major development on the card as airport restrictions lifted**
Included in the sale are the rights to develop future stages of Auckland development Ormiston Town Centre and Flat Bush School Road.
A Templeton Group spokeswoman said the transaction was expected to be completed by the end of November.
There would be no further comment on the group's plans for any of the developments, she said.
Also included in the sale is 68ha of coastal land at Ngunguru in Whangarei, the former Napier hospital site, and Auckland's Long Bay development and newly built retail centre.
According to Todd's website, the company owns 5ha of undeveloped land in Hawkes Bay's Napier Hill, 162ha at the Long Bay development on Auckland's North Shore, and 110ha at Auckland's Stonefield's development.
In Kāpiti, the company owns 75 per cent of the airport and surrounding land – a combined125ha in central Paraparaumu.
It said at the time that only about 40ha of its 125ha site was needed for airport operations and the remaining 85ha amounted to 'the single largest urban landholding in the Kāpiti district'.
Kāpiti Coast Mayor K Gurunathan said on Wednesday he was not concerned about the future of the airport and the purchase was a 'vote of confidence' in the district.
'If you look at those people [NZPL] they are big players, one at least is a global player which means they have significant future interest in the investment of the Kapiti Coast.'
The Todd Property Group has been approached for comment.
Its parent company is the Todd Corporation, one of New Zealand's largest privately-owned companies, with its history dating back to 1884, and owned by members of the Todd family.
The NBR Rich List for 2019 estimates the Todd family's wealth at $4 billion. It is one of five billionaire families on the list.
The Companies Office information, dated November 2018, shows 87 shareholders own Todd Corporation.
Besides a large property business through Todd Property Group, Todd is one of the country's largest energy players with businesses in gas production, electricity generation and retailing through Todd Energy NZ.
It owns Nova Energy which sells gas, electricity and broadband, Integria Healthcare which sells natural medicines and healthcare products, and owns well-known brands like Thompson's, Thursday Plantation, MediHerb, Greenridge, Eureka, Sunspirit and Red 8.
It also owns technology company Todd Digital.
Overseas, Todd has energy projects in North America, a methanol plant and natural gas production, and mineral investments in Australia and Canada.
Headquartered in Wellington, Todd's board of directors include well-known business people and specialists in finance, energy and investment.
Its independent chairman is Geoff Ricketts who took the chairmanship in 2011, succeeding Sir John Todd.
One of the shareholders of NZPropCo, Ben Gough, owner of Tailorspace, is well-known for his property investments as well as being a member of one of Canterbury's richest families, the Goughs.
Gough has been at the centre of a long battle for control of Gough Group with other members of the Gough family.
However the family sold it for $211 million to a Malaysian company Sime Darby Berhad in August, conditional on Overseas Investment Office approval.
The Tailorspace website says the company has investments around the globe and partners with Alvarium Investments, which represents 200 like-minded influential families and entrepreneurs in a range of countries and industries, and has ten offices in Europe, Asia, Australia and the United States.
One of the directors of Templeton Group is former high flying Auckland developer Nigel McKenna who went bankrupt in 2011 and was released from bankruptcy in 2014.
McKenna is now specialising in refurbishing heritage buildings and is a project director at Templeton Group. Neither he nor Gough were available for comment on the big property deal.