Over A Quarter Of A Million New Zealanders Register Interest In Contact Energy

Over 250,000 New Zealanders priority registered their interest in the Contact Energy share float, according to final figures released today.

Priority Registration closed on Monday, 15 March 1999.

Treasurer Bill Birch, Minister Responsible for Contact Energy Lockwood Smith and State Owned Enterprises Minister Tony Ryall said the response was extremely pleasing.

"With a float of this size, Priority Registration will help us enormously in getting Investment Statements and application forms out to potential investors, and in streamlining the whole public offering process," said Ministers.

The Ministers said that Priority Registration did not oblige investors to buy shares. However, those who did priority register will be guaranteed a minimum entitlement of 25 per cent more shares than the minimum public allocation in the public pool if the offer is over-subscribed.

"There will also be people who haven't priority registered who will buy shares when the proposed offer opens. All indications are that the offer will be very popular with New Zealand investors," said Ministers.

"Once the offer opens, expected to be around mid-April, priority registrants will be sent a copy of the Investment Statement and a personalised application form. In addition, we will be running an advertising campaign to encourage priority registrants who wish to buy shares to return their forms as early as possible. The advertising will also tell people who haven't priority registered, but may be interested in the offer, how to get a copy of the Investment Statement."

While the database of priority registrants has been de-duplicated on the basis of matching names and addresses, there may still be some duplication in the database remaining, given that people may have priority registered under different forms of name. The database may also contain the names of some people who are ineligible to priority register. These duplications will be eliminated on any application for shares.

This is the first time Priority Registration has been used in New Zealand. In Australia, Priority Registration was used successfully in the Telstra float. In that float, 54 per cent of priority registrants bought shares, and 72 per cent of all investors priority registered.

The Crown intends to sell 60 per cent of its shares in Contact Energy, one of New Zealand's leading energy companies, by way of public float. It is currently seeking a cornerstone shareholder to take up the remaining 40 per cent.