TechPac sale possible for right price

Tech Pacific could be sold "if the price is right" when controlling investor CVC Asia Pacific finishes reviewing its portfolio, the distributor's chiefs have suggested.

Kerry Baillie, managing director at Tech Pacific Australia, said that -- as far as he was aware -- CVC was just "testing the water" in a periodic review.

"Of course, if the price is right [a sale could take place]," Baillie added.

"[But] you will need to talk to Singapore to learn if there is any status."

Shailendra Gupta, CEO at TechPac's parent, Singapore-based Tech Pacific Holdings, confirmed that CVC was evaluating its portfolio.

That was a routine process but the review had not yet been concluded, he said.

"Hence all the speculation," Gupta said.

However, Gupta also did not rule out the possibility that Tech Pacific could be sold as a result of the review.

Baillie this week emailed a memo to Australia-based staff, reassuring them that the situation was business as usual despite the rumoured sale.

CVC Asia Pacific, a subsidiary of Schiphol-based CVC Capital Partners, paid another Netherlands company, Hagemeyer, US$235 million for a controlling stake in TechPac Australia's Singapore-based parent Tech Pacific Holdings in June 2003.

That deal had been the result of two years of negotiation with Hagemeyer following the Asian economic crash in the late 1990s.

Tech Pacific Holdings globally has around 1500 staff. Tech Pacific Australia was formed in 1981.