The Star: May 12, 2022

Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz
insulted Nadia Lim?
So who is Henry, whose personal
shares in DGL were – by
his calculation, and before the
Lim attack – worth $700 million?
That figure has not aged well
in the ensuing publicity – this
week more than $140m had been
wiped off his personal share
value as DGL’s share price plummeted.
Henry is paid A$600,000
($659,000) a year as DGL’s chief
executive.
(In 2016 ,The Rich List
reported Henry’s wealth to be
$145m. It noted he was a keen
tennis player, an avid reader and
had travelled extensively in Asia
and Europe.)
Henry has been reported as
saying the lessons from his first
business venture as a beekeeper
and honey exporter were a
constant reminder of the need to
focus sharply on investment returns.
He said the fundamentals
of business had been drummed
into him as a young man when
he started with a single beehive
and turned that into a business
with 1400 hives in a “ranch style”
operation. He said he built cheap
beehives while competitors were
spending big on infrastructure.
After the 1987 sharemarket
crash, it’s reported, he got interested
in property investment,
buying commercial property in
Christchurch and Wellington.
Moving to Auckland, he bought
more properties, and is reported
to have built a property portfolio
worth more than $100m.
An example of how he built his
wealth was his sale of Christchurch’s
former IRD building in
Cashel St to the Crown for $32m
in 2013. Property records show the
building sold in 2020 for $13m.
Henry’s foray into the chemicals
industry came in 1999 when
he bought a 3.6ha chemical
logistics site in Wellington.
The DGL prospectus said this
was the foundation asset “to
service customers requiring the
specialist provision of safe and
compliant chemical supply chain
management”.
In 2012, after securing the
business of international water
treatment and chemical distributor
Ixom and Shell, the company
expanded to Australia by buying
listed company Hydromet
Corporation in an off-market
takeover. This added recycling
and treatment capabilities to its
services range.
Over the next six years DGL
expanded its transport and treatment
capabilities with acquisitions
and further investment in
logistics, smelter and recycling
facilities.
In 2018, Henry acquired the
Dangerous Goods Logistics
business in Australia and the
company’s name and branding
was changed to DGL.
Its most recent acquisition is
in Western Australia with the
A$2.5m purchase of Total Coolant.
It’s the third acquisition in
WA in the past 12 months.
One of Henry’s acquisitions,
of New Zealand company
Chemsafe in 2015, has turned
sour. Former Chemsafe founder
and owner Rod Simmonds is
reported to be seeking around
$2.6m he alleges is still owed to
him on the sale of the business
and its assets to Henry in 2015.
The case is due to be heard in the
High Court at Auckland next
month.
Meanwhile, DGL, which has
three divisions, last month upped
its earnings guidance for the 12
months ending June this year,
forecasting ebitda (before deducting
acquisition costs) of around
$65m on sales revenue of $354m.
For the financial year 2021 it
posted sales revenue of $196m,
up 9 per cent on the previous
financial year and 3 per cent
higher than the prospectus
forecast. Pro-formal net profit
after tax was $11.3m, ahead of
prospectus forecasts.
But Henry’s outburst has not
escaped the attention of investors.
The stock fell 4.57 per cent
yesterday following a 15 per cent
fall on Monday.
—NZ Herald
SIMON HENRY has apologised
to Nadia Lim for calling her
“Eurasian fluff”, acknowledging
that he used “inappropriate
language”.
Lim confirmed yesterday that
she received the emailed apology
on Tuesday night – “six days
after the crises erupted”.
“It was accompanied by an offer
for Nadia to call him, which
will not be acted on,” Lim’s
spokeswoman Deborah Pead
said.
While Henry had claimed to
have called the celebrity chef
several times “Nadia’s phone
records will confirm she neither
received nor missed a call from
him”.
“In my opinion his acknowledgement
adds further insult to
injury and one has to wonder
why he even bothered,” Pead
said.
Henry’s employer DGL Group
had said it had been sent on
Friday.
The post suggested Henry
had tried “several times” to call
Lim. He offered a “sincere and
formal” apology for his “inappropriate
language”.
The apology was emailed
from DGL’s office manager.
Meanwhile Lim is in isolation
after testing positive for
Covid-19.
The 36-year-old revealed via
Thursday May 12 2022 The Star
NEWS 13
Henry apologises
PHOTO: DOUG SHERRING/
NZ HERALD
Facebook and Instagram she
has the virus.
“I have Covid right now and
(chef Vaughan Mabee) drops
off a home-made pie for us,” she
wrote online.
Lim shared a short video clip
showing off the creation by fellow
MasterChef NZ judge Mabee,
of central Otago’s Amisfield
Restaurant, in an Amisfield box.
A second post shows her two
sons in bed and a shout-out to
her other fellow MasterChef
judge – Michael Dearth – for
sending them his children’s
favourite storybooks from when
they were young, she says.
It is not known, however,
whether Lim’s children or husband
have tested positive for
Covid too.
—NZ Herald
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