Interest in Meriton from Canada, UK and China: Harry Triguboff
Developer Harry Triguboff says Canadian pension funds and investors from the UK and China have shown interest in buying all or part of his tightly held company, Meriton.
Triguboff declined to name who specifically were proposing takeover bids but said the company receives offers all the time.
“There are Canadian super funds, English super funds, and Chinese of course,” Triguboff told Bloomberg this week.
He said he is looking to his grandchildren for a successor. “But I’m in good health and my grandchildren are growing up.”
But he said his granddaughter, Ella Lankry, marketing director at Meriton had no interest in management. A second grandchild, in their final year of university, may be a candidate, he said.
Triguboff, who celebrated his 80th birthday earlier this month, said in March he has no intentions of retiring from a business that has propelled him from humble beginnings as a taxi driver to the seventh-richest person in Australia.
While Triguboff hasn’t ruled out listing Meriton, the company has generally steered clear of entering into business partnerships or joint ventures in the past and Triguboff dismisses recent speculation of a future partnership with property group, Stockland.
The Street Talk column of The Australian Financial Review speculated in March there were a number of Asian parties keen to pick up a "large Australian presence in one swoop."
It reported then the interested Asian bidders had contacted Australian banks to talk about the situation.
