Transpacific Industries, the Australian waste manager, has put its New Zealand business up for sale, two years after writing down its value.

The Queensland-based company has hired Deutsche Bank to help it sell the New Zealand business after the board decided to put greater focus on its more profitable Australian business, it said in a statement on Wednesday.

Any proceeds will be used to pay down debt.

“The quality of TPI New Zealand’s assets, its leading market position, its people and its strong customer relationships are expected to attract interest from investors that are well-placed to develop and grow that business,” chairman Martin Hudson said in speech notes for delivery at Wednesday’s annual meeting in Queensland.

“It goes without saying that we will only proceed with a sale of this business if it appropriately reflects value for our shareholders.”

In 2011, Transpacific wrote down the value of its New Zealand assets by $A182 million, something seen as an admission that it paid too much in 2006 with its $NZ870 million ($A766.49 million) acquisition of Waste Management New Zealand.

The New Zealand unit’s goodwill was valued at $A587.7m as at June 30.

Transpacific’s New Zealand assets have forecast earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of about $NZ110m in the 2014 financial year.

If the sale was at the same 10 times earnings multiple as Hong Kong-based Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings’ purchase of local rival EnviroWaste, it could reap as much as $NZ1.11 billion.

The dual-listed shares rarely trade on the NZX. The stock fell 1.9 per cent to $A1.04 on the ASX on Tuesday, having gained 33 per cent this year.