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Street Talk

Fisher & Paykel Finance up for sale post GE

Edited by Sarah Thompson, Anthony Macdonald and Jake Mitchell

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New Zealand consumer finance company Fisher & Paykel Finance, whose parent F&P Appliances was bought out by Chinese giant Haier Group in 2012, has been put up for sale, sources told Street Talk on Wednesday.

It's understood Haier appointed First NZ Capital, Credit Suisse's Kiwi affiliate, to manage a sale process last month and has started reaching out to potential private equity and trade buyers.

Auckland-based Fisher & Paykel Finance provides credit products including the Q-card and a credit card associated with New Zealand department store Farmers, along with business asset finance.

KKR & Co, Varde Partners and Deutsche Bank paid $8.2 billion for GE's Australian and New Zealand consumer finance operations.  Bloomberg

Haier is looking for a sale price close to $NZ300 million ($282 million), sources said.

The auction comes hot on the heels of GE Capital's $8.2 billion sale of its Australian and New Zealand consumer finance business and ANZ Banking Group's plans to offload its Esanda Dealer Finance unit.

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GE's contested process, which wrapped up in March, saw KKR & Co's consortium trump groups led by TPG, Macquarie Group, Apollo Global Management, and credit card giant Barclaycard. ASX-listed FlexiGroup also participated in the process but dropped out on competition concerns.

It would make sense for the same tyre-kickers to run the ruler over Fisher & Paykel Finance. Finance Now, owned by SBS Bank, Heartland New Zealand and the Aussie regional banks are also expected to take a flier.

A concern for prospective acquirers will be winning over retailer Farmers, which accounts for a large portion of Fisher & Paykel Finance's business. In the case of GE, it required KKR founder George Roberts to sit down with Harvey Norman chief Katie Page to get the deal over the line.

China's Haier paid $NZ890 million for Fisher & Paykel Appliances in 2012. At the time, Haier flagged that there could be a potential divestment of the finance arm and has since tested the market's appetite at least twice, according to sources.

Elsewhere in the sector, and as first reported by Street Talk Online on Wednesday, non-bank lender Pepper Australia has finalised the purchase of minority stakes in two Standard Chartered Asian consumer finance lenders, ahead of its slated initial public offering.

Pepper bought a 12 per cent stake in Hong Kong and southern China lenders PrimeCredit Limited and Shenzhen PrimeCredit after months of talks with Standard Chartered and a prolonged regulatory approval process.

Pepper was part of a consortium led by China Travel Financial Holdings Co and United States-based York Capital Management Global Advisers.

The acquisition boosts Pepper's footprint in Asia at a time when it is expected to seek an Australian Securities Exchange listing.

Sarah Thompson has co-edited Street Talk since 2009, specialising in private equity, investment banking, M&A and equity capital markets stories. Prior to that, she spent 10 years in London as a markets and M&A reporter at Bloomberg and Dow Jones. Email Sarah at sarah.thompson@afr.com
Anthony Macdonald is a Chanticleer columnist. He is a former Street Talk co-editor and has 10 years' experience as a business journalist and worked at PwC, auditing and advising financial services companies. Connect with Anthony on Twitter. Email Anthony at a.macdonald@afr.com
Jake Mitchell is a former Fairfax Media journalist. Connect with Jake on Twitter.

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