MightyRiverPower sale seen up to 90% taken up by kiwis

MightyRiverPower to have secondary listing on ASX, up to 90% kiwi uptake seen

March 4 (BusinessDesk) – MightRiverPower will have a secondary listing on the ASX although 85 percent to 95 percent of the stock sold is expected to be taken up by kiwis, Prime Minister John Key says.

Pre-registration of interest starts tomorrow and is expected to be concluded by mid-May. There will be a minimum $1,000 subscription and no scaling back for New Zealand citizens up to $2,000, Key said in Wellington.

Details of a loyalty bonus scheme, rewarding shareholders who retain their stake for a certain time, are still to come though on the current sale timeline, the company should be listed before the Budget in May, subject to market conditions.

The initial public offering of 49 percent of MightyRiverPower, estimated to raise $1.5 billion, is the first of a series of selldowns of state assets aimed at raising $5 billion to $7 billion that the government says will be spent on public good assets such as schools and hospitals.

“We envisage that with the government’s majority shareholding, total New Zealand ownership will be 85-90 percent of the company after the share offer,” Key said in a statement.

The Supreme Court last week cleared the way for the sale by dismissing a challenge by the Maori Council that indigenous claims to water rights needed to be settled first.

(BusinessDesk)

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