Carter Holt listing deferred again

The long-awaited initial public offer of Graeme Hart's Carter Holt buildings supplies group has been delayed again.

In a statement, Carter Holt Harvey said: "Consideration of a proposed stockmarket listing for building supplies distribution business Carters is on hold."

"While the Carters business continued to perform strongly, benefiting from the robust New Zealand construction environment, the uncertainty in global equity markets had led Carter Holt to review the merits of a listing at this time," it said.

One market source said it was “disappointing it’s not coming to market and people’s time has been spent on this two times round.”

While it was possible Carter Holt had a private buyer lined up, “it’s certainly not an easy market to get an aggressive price. It was always going to be a struggle for this business to get the [earnings] multiple the seller wanted.”

Carter Holt formally announced plans to list on the NZX and ASX in May, saying it had appointed investment banks Credit Suisse, First NZ Capital, Deutsche Bank, Deutsche Craigs, and Forsyth Barr to manage the deal.

That plan was put on hold in June, with the company saying changes in market conditions had led to uncertainty about the earnings outlook of its Australian timber business.

“The new Board of Carter Holt Harvey Group, in conjunction with the Group’s advisors, determined they were unable to finalise the forecasts in the IPO offer document given the necessary level of confidence required as to the forecasts’ accuracy and probability of being achieved,” the company said in a statement.

In August the float was on again, but in a different form – this time offering only the New Zealand building supplies business and leaving out the wood processing activities on both sides of the Tasman.

The revised scheme aimed to offer a stake in the Carters business, a supplier to the building trade with 50 distribution outlets and nine frame and truss sites across the country.

“This well-established national network puts Carters in a strong position to capitalise on the continuing strong demand for new housing,” it said at the time.

The market source said he hoped the withdrawal of the Carters float would not put off other IPOs.

“I think there’s still appetite for good new companies to come to market,” he said.