Joint Venture Announcement

MEDIACOM-RELEASE-HORIZON-ENERGY

Gisborne based Eastland Network Limited and Whakatane based Horizon Energy Distribution Limited have today announced their agreement to form a Joint Venture Company to manage the electricity networks of both companies.

The formation of the Company follows Horizon's earlier decision to seek requests for proposals for a management contract for its operations.

The Joint Venture Company which will operate from Gisborne will also pursue management contracts for other electricity networks and utility infrastructure assets.

In announcing the formation of the joint venture Eastland Chairman, Bob Briant and Horizon Chairman, Colin Holmes have signalled significant savings in their respective company's operations as a result of the arrangement.

The two networks have a combined customer base of 50,000 customers.

Both Chairmen acknowledge that there would be some redundancies with the arrangement. They pointed out that although the business would operate predominantly from Gisborne a small operational presence would still be maintained in Whakatane.

The joint venture is expected to be operational by the beginning of September.

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