Clayton

COSGROVE

SOEs Spokesperson

MRP float shows 4.4m Kiwis lose $140m

The float of Mighty River Power has cost the 4.4 million New Zealanders who couldn’t afford to buy the shares a total of $140 million, says Labour’s SOEs spokesperson Clayton Cosgrove.

“New Zealanders who couldn’t afford to buy shares in Mighty River have lost out again. First they lost $1.7 billion in the sale. Over the next two years $140 million in dividends will be paid out to private investors – that’s money that should have gone to the taxpayer.

“The $140 million in dividends could have been spent on schools and hospitals, instead it’s lining the pockets of private investors. Much of it will head overseas.

“Meanwhile the $1.7 billion the Government raised from the sale is being spent on the likes of the Mighty River bonus shares scheme, the closed caption TV for Parliament and security and risk management for the Prime Minister’s department. So much for John Key’s promises that it would be used for new infrastructure.

“Even those who bought shares lose out on the price. The share price has gone down by 31c. Phillip Anderson of Devon Funds Management today said the Government set the price too high, warning ‘that’s going to hinder the price for Meridian’.

“The best the Government can come up with to counter that is a ‘buy now, pay later’ sweetener to try to convince Kiwis to buy into Meridian. It won’t work.

“The number of Kiwis interested in buying SOE shares has halved since the Mighty River float. Taxpayers are sick of losing out in the Government’s great sell-off,” says Clayton Cosgrove.
ends

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