Headline: National gives favoured institutions inside track for Air NZ shares
Just 2% of the public bought shares in Mighty River, only 1% bought into Meridian, and, for Air New Zealand, that figure will be 0%.
National has given favoured institutions the inside track to buying Air New Zealand shares while giving up on its promise that so-called ‘mum and dad’ investors would be the priority in its asset sales, Green Party Co-leader Dr Russel Norman said today.
The sale of Air New Zealand shares was only made public by the Government on Sunday, yet media were already reporting in the middle of last week that the Government and financial institutions were getting ready for the sale to happen. This suggests that certain institutions were given special information that the New Zealand public was denied. There will be no public offering of Air New Zealand shares.
“Favoured institutions are going to receive shares from National in its sale of Air New Zealand while so-called ‘mum and dad’ investors get nothing. National’s promise that asset sales would be about creating widespread ownership by members of the public has been shown up as another lie,” said Dr Norman.
“It’s clear from the information that leaked to the media that National was already approaching selected financial institutions about the coming sale last week. Just who got the inside word from National about the upcoming sale is a serious question that warrants further investigation because it certainly doesn’t look like everyone in the market got the information at the same time, as they should have.
“As stockmarket expert Brian Gaynor has noted in relation to the Air NZ sale, it’s a well-established principle of stockmarkets that crucial information should be shared with all market participants at the same time, not just with select players.
“Whether the leak came from the Government or a financial player that National was talking to, it shows that some people had inside knowledge on this sale that wasn’t being shared with the wider public as it should have been. Once again, we see that, under the Key Government, organisations with the right connections to government get favourable treatment.
“There will be no offering to the public, making a lie of National’s claim that the sales are about creating widespread public ownership. Brokers have been clear that they expect the shares will go to institutions, not so-called ‘mum and dad’ investors.
“Just 2% of the public bought shares in Mighty River, only 1% bought into Meridian, and, for Air New Zealand, that figure will be 0%.
“This is a cynical attempt to flog off an asset to big institutions just before Kiwis get to have their say on asset sales. It is an insult to the 327,000 Kiwis who put their names to the petition that triggered the referendum and the vast majority of New Zealanders who oppose asset sales,” said Dr Norman.
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