Auckland business leader, Sir Richard Carter, dies

Auckland business leader, Sir Richard Carter, dies

Jan. 10 (BusinessDesk) – Sir Richard Carter, a member of one of the founding families of the Carter Holt Harvey Ltd. timber empire, has died, in Auckland, aged 75.

Sir Richard stepped down from the executive chairmanship of CHH in 1992, eight years before it celebrated a 100 year trading history, but he was at the helm in the company’s heyday of fast expansion, spurred in part by the 1987 sharemarket crash.

CHH bought Caxton paper mills, then in 1990 it bought New Zealand Forest Products from Elder’s IXL, which had run into financial difficulty. The deal was valued at up to A$682 million, depending on what Elders’s unwanted mining, gas and oil interests turned out to be worth, on disposal.

“The acquisition of NZFP propelled CHH into a new league, boosting its revenues by more than 60% to top $7 billion and making CHH the clear leader in the New Zealand forestry sector,” says a company history on the Fundinguniverse website.

However, after Sir Richard left, the company made unsuccessful investments in Chile, and later went through restructuring and ultimate sale to fellow New Zealand tycoon, Graeme Hart’s Rank Group.

A family statement read: “A great life is complete.”

Sir Richard had become the family patriarch and continued to manage substantial investments, including a large farm, the NBR website reports.

He is survived by his daughter, Shirley-Ann, and his two grandsons Henry and Baden.

Sir Richard’s funeral will be held at 2pm Thursday at Waytemore Farm, 55C Aicken Road in Paparimu. The family requests donations to the Kidney Society (PO Box 97026, South Auckland Mail Centre) in lieu of flowers.

(BusinessDesk)

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