Tag Archives: Asset Sales

The government has been forced to amend the offer documents for the partial sale of MightyRiverPower to take into account the risk of a Labour-Greens coalition winning the next election and enacting its proposal to slash the price of electricity. The offer has been temporarily suspended pending the filing of a supplementary disclosure, Finance Minister Bill English and State Owned …

Shares in the partial privatisation of state-owned power company MightyRiverPower are expected to be priced between $2.35 and $2.80, with uncertainty about the future of the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter expected to skew pricing to the bottom of that range. That means the government expects to raise between $1.6 billion and $1.9 billion in the politically unpopular initiative, which has …

Meridian Energy says it is “unlikely” to reach a new electricity supply agreement with its largest customer, the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter, which consumes around one-seventh of New Zealand’s electricity. The bombshell disclosure has the capacity to upset the government’s plans to partially privatise state-owned electricity company MightyRiverPower. Offer documents are due for release in about a fortnight, with listing …

The founding chief executive of MightyRiverPower, Doug Heffernan, will leave the company next year after 16 years at the helm under arrangements that trigger a $500,000 retention payment on top of his existing salary of almost $1.5 million last year. The arrangements mean Heffernan will see through the company’s partial privatisation and its first full financial year as a publicly …

The next three weeks will see the government mount a $1.1 million mass market television, newspaper and internet campaign to entice New Zealanders to invest in the 49 percent of state-owned electricity company, MightyRiverPower, being offered for sale. Pre-registrations of interest will open tomorrow and last three weeks until March 22, placing would-be small-scale investors in MRP into the queue …

Solid Energy’s former chief executive Dr Don Elder must be allowed to appear before MPs, Labour’s SOEs spokesperson Clayton Cosgrove says. Clayton Cosgrove has today written to Solid Energy’s new chairman Mark Ford  and interim chief executive Garry Diack requesting that the former CEO appear before the Commerce Select Committee as part of the 2011/12 Financial Review Hearing of Solid …

The worst kept secret of the Government’s privatisation programme has been all but confirmed, with the Australian media reporting that Mighty River Power will be on sale to Australian investors, says Clayton Cosgrove, Labour’s State Owned Enterprises spokesperson. The Australian Financial Review, Australia’s most respected business news source, has reported today that Mighty River Power will be listed on both …

The government will be racing the clock to try and sell up to 49 percent of state-owned electricity company MightyRiverPower now that the Supreme Court has dismissed attempts by Maori claimants to settle Treaty of Waitangi claims to freshwater rights first. The unanimous decision of the five judge full bench of the Supreme Court clears the last legal hurdle to …

Former Prime Minister Jenny Shipley stonewalled questions about her suitability to remain chair of state-owned power company Genesis Energy after resigning her chairmanship of Mainzeal companies just before the country’s largest construction group went into receivership. In her first public appearance since the Feb. 6 Mainzeal receivership, Shipley was fielding questions at the six month result briefing for Genesis, which …

Meridian Energy says it’s ready for partial privatisation and expects a significant uplift in operating earnings in the second half after transmission outages and heavy rainfall knocked its performance in the six months to Dec. 31. The state-owned power company’s accounts also show a strong positive bounce in the unrealised value of its contracts to service the Bluff aluminium smelter, …