Powerco: Potential Buyers of Council Shares Short-listed

The New Plymouth District Council tonight unanimously agreed a short-list of bidders for the possible sale of its shares in Powerco.

Mayor Peter Tennent is confident of achieving a satisfactory final offer for the council’s 38.16 per cent holding.

“And once we get to this point, we’ll be able to take our eggs out of the single basket that is Powerco and spread them within a managed investment portfolio,” he says.

“PricewaterhouseCoopers advise us that this portfolio will give greater diversity, reducing the risk invariably associated with a solitary investment, while ensuring that we at least maintain the dividend income levels we currently receive from Powerco, for the long term benefit of the community.”

As with all decisions on council investments, tonight’s unanimous vote was based purely on sound professional advice. Mayor Tennent says: “This council prides itself on the fact that it leaves emotion and politics out of the arena when making investment decisions.

“We take a pragmatic, business approach based on a single goal – achieving the best outcome for the ratepayers of this district. It’s this approach that has helped our investments to perform so well, helping us as a council to keep our rates so low.”

Subject to the agreement of Taranaki Electricity Trust and Powerco Wanganui Trust, who are also considering selling their Powerco holdings, advisers PricewaterhouseCoopers will now conduct further work on refining the short-list of indicative bids selected.

At the stipulation of the bidders, their identities will remain confidential.

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>