Air New Zealand Says Qantas Has No Veto Rights

Air New Zealand has dismissed as nonsense comments attributed by United Future leader, Peter Dunne, to Australian Deputy Prime Minister John Anderson to the effect that Qantas would have the upper hand on the Air NZ Board and sign off every major decision.

The facts are that Qantas has absolutely no power to veto any decision of the Air New Zealand Board. Although a Qantas director must be part of a quorum or a signatory to a written resolution, each director has only one vote and Qantas will have, at most, two directors out of ten. These provisions are purely to allow Qantas to be included in the Board's decision making process - they do not allow them to control it. If Qantas does not attend a meeting or sign a written resolution, any decision will be delayed for 24 hours to be determined by a normal majority regardless of the Qantas position on the issue.

Air New Zealand's CEO Mr Ralph Norris commented:

"These are, from the Board's perspective, perfectly acceptable and appropriate provisions to allow for good corporate governance processes which involve participation by a major shareholder in the company. Most companies require written resolutions to be unanimous, so the Board even under the proposed arrangements has more flexibility than most. These provisions result in Qantas having less influence than would normally be achieved by a shareholder with such a significant investment."

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