Key Notes: Genesis share offer coming soon

Genesis share offer coming soon

In the next few weeks, New Zealanders will have the opportunity to invest in a minority stake in Genesis Energy.

This will complete the share offer programme that National took to New Zealand before the 2011 election.

The share offer is successfully meeting each of its objectives.

It means we are investing in new assets - like schools, hospitals, roads, and broadband - without going further into debt.

So far around $4 billion has been raised to invest in these public assets.

Without the share offers, we would either have to borrow the money from overseas investors, or do without the new public assets.

Mum and Dad investors are getting the opportunity to invest in New Zealand businesses, helping Kiwis to diversify their growing investment away from property.

New Zealanders continue to be at the front of the queue for shares. At least 85 per cent of shares in our mixed-ownership companies are held by New Zealanders.

Our mixed-ownership companies will benefit from market scrutiny, just as Air New Zealand has since being set up as a mixed-ownership company by the previous Government.

Air New Zealand is now an award winning, world class airline. It is hard to imagine it being so successful had it been 100 per cent government owned.

The share offers have been a shot in the arm for our capital markets.

2013 was a great year for our share market, over $7 billion of new capital was listed on NZX and the total number of trades on the market jumped by more than 30 per cent.

And, as we promised, the Government is retaining 51 per cent ownership of each mixed-ownership company.

The share offer programme is doing what it was intended to do. I'm proud that, as a Government, we've done what we said we would do.

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