Multiplex has been reassuring investors that the industrial assets it bought from James Hardie have not been affected by that company's recent asbestos-related issues.
Multiplex was more than pleased with the progress of the assets, which had settled in under the company's banner, Multiplex fund manager Chris Judd said.
There had been no problems with the asbestos concerns of the properties and development was proceeding, he said.
In March, Multiplex signed up to buy the James Hardie industrial portfolio for $87.27 million.
The trust picked up six properties covering 82.64 hectares in Australia and New Zealand on a 9.4 per cent yield.
At the time, CB Richard Ellis valued the property portfolio at $88.4 million but Multiplex said there were "certain areas of contamination".
The assets had development potential, with 6 ha at Sydney's Rosehill a prime candidate.
The four Australian properties were sold by the Medical Research and Compensation Foundation, a trust set up in 2001 to quarantine James Hardie Industries NV from asbestos-related liabilities.
Last week, Multiplex
sold the New Zealand properties to the NZ Location Group for $NZ26.26 million ($24.65 million),
50 per cent above their $NZ17.5 million value of earlier this year.
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HALLIBURTON considers selling off KBR unit
HOUSTON
When Halliburton was awarded contracts worth more than $12 billion for work in Iraq, critics said that the company was using its political connections to reap big profits. But now, in a sign that those contracts are not providing the boon executives had expected from a subsidiary weighed down by other problems, Halliburton has said that it was considering a sale of the business.
Asbestos delaying renovation project at Fox hospital
By Amy L. Ashbridge
Staff Writer
ONEONTA - Asbestos is standing in the way of a $12 million const ruction and renovation project at A.O. Fox Memorial Hospital in Oneonta.
APS: Some Students Might Have Been Exposed To Asbestos
POSTED: 9:06 am MDT September 24, 2004
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- Parents of students at one Albuquerque charter school will receive notification Friday that their children might have been exposed to asbestos at school.
Lives in the dust
September 25, 2004
The worst of the asbestos scourge is yet to come, affecting people like Hank and Bert De Vries.
Photo: Simon O Dwyer
In the end there was nowhere left to hide. The death toll was climbing, the inquiry forensic and the public anger near boiling point. Elisabeth Sexton and Tony Stephens report on James Hardie, its dirty work and the people left behind.
Rumours of change at Hardie helm
By Scott Rochfort
Sydney
September 25, 2004
Speculation is rife that James Hardie chief operating officer Louis Gries could soon take charge at the former asbestos manufacturer.
Lead Paint, Asbestos Found in School Gym
By Tom Kasprzack
Published on 9/24/2004
Pawcatuck -- Construction workers renovating Stonington High School have encountered some lead paint and asbestos inside the gymnasium, Peter Manning, senior project manager for the Gilbane Construction Co. said last week.
Another £6.9 million is to be spent on Coventry Transport Museum to rid it of asbestos, add new exhibitions and install sprinklers to prevent fire wrecking its priceless collections.
The full council agreed the extra expenditure after hearing the alternatives could prove even more costly. Building a new museum from scratch would cost £35 million.
MARK COLVIN: Mark Latham today aligned himself even more closely with a campaign to force James Hardie to pay better compensation for victims of mesothelioma.
The Labor leader stopped the campaign bus outside the James Hardie factory in Sydney to meet one of the leading campaigners for compensation.
Halliburton said it will restructure and may even sell its Kellogg, Brown and Root subsidiary, the business at the root of recent controversy.
KBR, an engineering and construction business, has come under scrutiny over contracts in Iraq and employee corruption in Nigeria.
