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The Crown has sold its 2.82% shareholding in Invercargill Airport Ltd for $5,600 to four papatipu rūnanga of the Ngāi Tahu iwi, State-Owned Enterprises Minister Tony Ryall has announced.

“The Government has never received a dividend from the investment in Invercargill Airport Ltd. Invercargill City continues to hold 97.18% of the shares in the company,” Mr Ryall says.

State Owned Enterprises Minister Tony Ryall today announced seven new appointments and 11 reappointments across five SOEs and two airport companies. 

“This appointment round introduces some highly skilled directors into the portfolio and also provides for good continuity of skill and experience,” says Mr Ryall. 

Pip Dunphy has been appointed as Deputy Chair to the board of Solid Energy, and Andy Coupe as an additional director to the Board.

State Owned Enterprises Minister Tony Ryall says Pip Dunphy joined the board last December, and she brings to her expanded role substantial experience in financial services, fund management and a range of current and previous governance appointments.

Mr Coupe was appointed to the board with effect from 1 October 2013. He is Deputy Chair of the Takeovers Panel, and is also a member of the Institute of Finance Professionals New Zealand.

A proposal to financially restructure Solid Energy has been agreed between the Crown, the company and key lenders, Finance Minister Bill English and Minister for State Owned Enterprises Tony Ryall say.

“As we have said previously, ministers were not prepared to expose taxpayers to on-going losses if Solid Energy’s core business was not considered viable,” Mr English says.

Meridian Energy’s agreement with New Zealand Aluminium Smelters (NZAS) will provide greater certainty for Tiwai Point smelter workers, the wider Southland region and the New Zealand electricity industry, Finance Minister Bill English and SOE Minister Tony Ryall say.

Meridian this morning announced it had reached an agreement with NZAS on a new electricity contract for the smelter.

Schools, Christchurch hospitals, KiwiRail and irrigation are four of the biggest recipients of new capital allocated from the Future Investment Fund in Budget 2013, Finance Minister Bill English and State Owned Enterprises Minister Tony Ryall say.

The Government is taking the next step in its share offer programme and preparing Meridian Energy for partial sale later this year, Finance Minister Bill English and State Owned Enterprises Minister Tony Ryall say.

This follows the successful listing last week of Mighty River Power on the New Zealand Stock Exchange.

113,000 New Zealanders will become shareholders in Mighty River Power following a successful share offer, Finance Minister Bill English and State Owned Enterprises Minister Tony Ryall say.

The final price will be $2.50 per share.

Of the shares issued, 86.5 per cent will be New Zealand owned: 26.9 per cent by New Zealand retail investors, 8.6 per cent by New Zealand institutions and with the Crown retaining a majority 51 per cent shareholding. That leaves 13.5 per cent for overseas institutions.

State Owned Enterprises Minister Tony Ryall today announced two new appointments and eight reappointments across eight SOEs plus Dunedin Airport.

At Kiwirail, John Spencer has been reappointed as the Chair of both the commercial SOE, Kiwirail Holdings Ltd, as well as the land holding entity, New Zealand Railways Corporation.

Traci Houpapa, of Hamilton, is to be reappointed to the Board of Landcorp Farming Ltd and will also become Deputy Chair following the retirement of Warren Larsen.
New director appointments:

The Government and Mighty River Power are filing a supplementary disclosure to the Mighty River Power offer document, say Finance Minister Bill English and State Owned Enterprises Minister Tony Ryall.

The document is being lodged with the Registrar of Financial Service Providers this afternoon.

"The existing MRP offer document already outlined the principal risks associated with an investment in MRP shares," Mr English says.

The Mighty River Power share offer opens for business tomorrow with New Zealanders having three weeks to apply to buy shares.

Finance Minister Bill English and State Owned Enterprises Minister Tony Ryall today confirmed that the share offer will proceed, with Mighty River Power expected to be listed on the stock exchange for the first time on May 10.

As at 8.30 this morning, 100,000 New Zealanders have pre-registered their interest in buying shares in the Government's partial share offer of up to 49 per cent of energy company Mighty River Power.

State Owned Enterprises Minister Tony Ryall says there's been strong interest in the pre-registration website and at times the response had been huge.

The website: www.mightyrivershares.govt.nz, was set up to provide information to New Zealanders keen to register their interest in the share offer.

New Zealand retail investors in the Mighty River Power share offer will receive one loyalty bonus share for every 25 shares they hold for two years from the offer, up to a maximum of 200 bonus shares, Finance Minister Bill English says.

"The loyalty bonus scheme that I am announcing today is another way to encourage widespread and substantial New Zealand ownership of shares in MRP," Mr English says.

"It also recognises the loyalty of those New Zealanders who retain their shares and contribute towards the country's savings culture."

The pre-registration period for the Mighty River Power Offer closed at 5pm today, with around 440,000 New Zealanders registering their interest.

Minister of State-Owned Enterprises Tony Ryall said that the number of New Zealanders who pre-registered was extremely pleasing.

"Pre-registration is not a commitment to buy shares, and someone pre-registering their interest may decide to not apply for shares in Mighty River Power. However, it was a goal of the Government to achieve widespread awareness of the opportunity, and I believe we have achieved this."

At as 3 pm today, over 422,000 New Zealanders have pre-registered for Mighty River Power shares," State Owned Enterprises Minister Tony Ryall says.

"New Zealanders intending to pre-register their interest in buying Mighty River Power shares but haven't yet done so have until tomorrow afternoon to do so", says Mr Ryall.

The pre-registration deadline is 5pm on Friday 22 March.

New Zealanders can pre-register online or via the Share Offer call centre at

State Owned Enterprises Minister Tony Ryall has reappointed the Chair, Chris Moller, and two directors, Mary Devine and Anake Goodall to the Board of Meridian Energy.

Mr Ryall has also reappointed three directors at Genesis Power; Deputy Chair Joanna Perry, Rukumoana Schaafhausen and John Dell.

At Quotable Value Ltd, one new director, Stephen Panckhurst, has been appointed to the Board and one existing director, Ian Holland, has been reappointed for a further term.

Background

MERIDIAN

200,000 New Zealanders have pre-registered their interest in buying shares in the Government's minority share offer of the energy company Mighty River Power.

State Owned Enterprises Minister Tony Ryall says the 200,000 mark for pre-registrations was reached at 3.30 this afternoon – less than three days after the preregistration website went live.

The great majority - 89 per cent - pre-registered online, the rest were divided equally between the Call Centre, and Smartphones," Mr Ryall says.

New Zealanders are being given an incentive to pre-register their interest in the Mighty River Power share offering, Finance Minister Bill English and State Owned Enterprises Minister Tony Ryall say.

Those who pre-register may be allocated up to 25 per cent more shares than people who do not pre-register, if demand exceeds shares available.

Mr English and Mr Ryall announced the incentive at the launch of the official three week pre-registration period for the Mighty River Power share offer in Auckland today.

Finance Minister Bill English and Minister for State Owned Enterprises Tony Ryall will tomorrow officially launch the pre-registration period for New Zealanders who are interested in finding out more about the Mighty River Power share offer.

“National campaigned on this policy at the election in 2011 and it has been extensively discussed before and since then,” Mr English says.

“It has been through the High Court and the Supreme Court where the Government has won both cases and now, at last, it’s time to get on with it.”

Solid Energy’s shareholding ministers, Finance Minister Bill English and Minister for State Owned Enterprises Tony Ryall confirm the Government has been advised that Solid Energy is in discussions with its banks.

“The Solid Energy board is working with Treasury, advisors and the banks with respect to further restructuring options, with the aim of returning the company to a sustainable financial position,” Mr English says.