Rt Hon Winston Peters
New Zealand First Leader
13 March 2013

Solid Energy a Micro-Meddled Mess Thanks to the Government

New Zealand First says the Government has micro-meddled Solid Energy into bankruptcy while the company was using borrowed money to pay out dividends.

Rt Hon Winston Peters says having Solid Energy pay out sizeable dividends when it was losing a serious amount of money has a whiff of fraud about it.

“At the very best it is a case of bungling incompetence which matches the financial disaster with South Canterbury Finance (SCF).

“In that instance, the Government allowed the SCF guarantee to investors to blow out by hundreds of millions of dollars.

“The scenario now playing out with Solid Energy comes after Finance Minister Bill English authorised the struggling company to increase debt to $300 million – some of which must have been used to pay dividends.

“The Government would have us believe that it has business expertise. The reality is they didn’t have a clue what they were doing in regards to Solid Energy or SCF.

“It is hard to conceive of a Minister of Finance with so many bungles under his belt as this man,” says Mr Peters.

ENDS

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