Leaks show National plans to privatise the Natioanl Grid

Leak Reveals National Plans to Privatise Transpower

Wednesday, 26 July 2017, 2:35 pm
Press Release: New Zealand First Party

Scoop,

26 July, 2017

NZ First says a leaked January 2017 presentation to Transpower by Swiss Investment Bankers UBS reveals the National Government intends to privatise the National Grid.

“We have evidence National is lining Transpower up for privatisation in 2018 if given half a chance,” says New Zealand First Leader and Member of Parliament for Northland, Rt Hon Winston Peters

“A leaked UBS presentation to Transpower scopes the market, investor appetite and even suggests how stakeholder concerns could be managed. UBS has form with Transpower, having arranged for Transpower a Cayman’s Island based financing deal which only ended in recent years.

“Kiws are being seriously conned. Sir John Key promised “no more asset sales after Genesis” while Bill English told media in November 2013 that everything which could be sold had been. Even Mr Joyce said in November 2013 "we will be transparent" about resuming asset sales.

“National simply can’t be trusted.

“What else do you expect from Mr English’s best mate and Transpower chairperson, the Hon Tony Ryall? As National’s Prince of Privatisation, Mr Ryall is proud to have“privatised or partially privatised $7.7 billion worth of assets” with Mr English.

“Mr Ryall was appointed to the Transpower Board against Treasury advice last year but then was fast tracked into the chair’s seat. Is it any wonder the leaked UBS document does not ask “if” Transpower will be sold “but form of interest to sell”.

“An ‘asset sales’ slush fund is proposed for the $2bn plus that this could net and UBS say it could happen “As early as August 2017” but “likely in 2018 and beyond”.

“Funnily enough we cannot find a single mention of this on National’s website. What else is on National’s secret 2018 chopping block, if New Zealanders ignore this deceit?,” says Mr Peters.

Selling the family silver - for a buck

Air NZ shares sold at $1.65

The sale of 20% of the Crown's shareholding in Air New Zealand has been completed, raising $365 million for the Government.

Radio NZ,

19 November, 2013

Some 221 million shares were sold at $1.65 each - the price that the the airline's shares closed at last Friday. Trading in the shares was suspended on Monday and Tuesday.

State Owned Enterprises Minister Tony Ryall said on Tuesday there was significant demand from New Zealand retail broking firms and New Zealand institutions.

The Government retains a 53% shareholding in the national carrier.

Meanwhile, Acting Prime Minister Bill English denied that Prime Minister John Key misled the public when he said last week that no immediate sale of Air New Zealand shares was planned.

The Government announced the sale on Sunday.

Labour leader David Cunliffe said on Tuesday that Mr Key must have known the sale process was just about to begin.

But Mr English told MPs that the final decision was not made until Friday, the day after the Prime Minister's comments, and said Mr Cunliffe's allegations were simply wrong

Welcome Aboard this Air NZ Asset Sale

What to do with an afternoon off, a paper bag, and poor government decisions.

Selling New Zealand

Air NZ asset sale tipped for next week

The Government is being tipped to sell down its stake in Air New Zealand early next week ahead of a referendum asking Kiwis if they support partial sales of state-owned assets.

NZ Herald

13 November, 2013

The Government owns 73 per cent of the national carrier and has said it wants to reduce its stake to 51 per cent, but has yet to name a timeframe.

Several market sources spoken to today said there was an expectation that the deal would be done before a referendum asking Kiwis if they support the Government selling up to 49 per cent of Meridian Energy, Mighty River Power, Genesis Power, Solid Energy and Air New Zealand.

Postal voting for the non-binding referendum opens on Friday November 22 and closes on December 13. "The smart money is on something to kick off early next week," said one market source.

Another market player told the Herald that he had heard it could happen before the weekend.

The decision to sell is backed up by Air New Zealand's strong performance on the share market.

Its shares have had a good run in the last year rising 34 per cent.

Today they closed up 1c on $1.67 valuing the company at $1.833 billion.

At that share price the sell-down stake would be worth around $400 million.

Market players have said the shares would be snapped up because of strong appetite for the company.

The sale is expected to be done in the form of a block trade where one or more investment banks would buy up the stake and then on-sell it to others in an off market deal.

Those type of deals are typically not announced to the share market until after they have been completed.

New Zealand institutional investors and brokers are expected to be at the front of the queue for the shares because of the Government's promise to ensure at least 85 per cent of the assets are sold to New Zealanders.

Sources said the Crown had yet to appoint a company to manage the sales process.

Investment banks typically get up to two weeks to put together a pitch for selling an asset but that could be reduced to as little as two hours for Air New Zealand.

Government departments must follow a tender process but a source said that could overcome by the Government picking a company from its pre-selected panel.

That panel includes Goldman Sachs, Macquarie, First NZ Capital, Deutsche Bank, UBS, Craigs Investment Partners and Forsyth Barr.

Greek economic collapse

Greek Privatization Effort Flops on Lack of Bidders

24/7 Wall Street,

10 June 2013

If things are really stabilizing or set to get better in Greece and the rest of the PIIGS in Europe, then why did a privatization sale end up with no bidders? That is what we would like to find out about in Greece now. The nation was trying to privatize the natural gas company called Depa. Dow Jones reported the failed sale earlier on Monday and this is not a good sign for outside perception that things in Europe are getting much better.

What matters here is that no bidders surfaced for Depa. If Greece cannot privatize certain assets, then there is going to be yet another budget hole that was expected to be filled under the existing bailouts for the nation. The real risk is that Greece has to opt for more austerity measures rather than raising capital, and the ramification of that is that the Greek public does not want to absorb any more sacrifice on top of the cuts it has already seen.

The so-called sister company of Depa is Desfa, the gas-grid operator. It was said to have received only one bid. We were looking for more than 1 billion euros to come from the privatizations based upon past comments that Greece was hoping these assets would generate somewhere in the vicinity of half of the 2.6 billion euros that the nation needs to raise. We were not as optimistic as the half, but getting a billion euro or even close to it would have been a solid start and a show that long-term infrastructure buyers are at least willing to look at Greece again.

We would remind the public that the OPAP state-run gambling entity came down to a single bid and then the entity posted a loss after the deal closed. Infrastructure buyers are likely concerned that they would have to keep providing services in some manner even if the public cannot pay or if the public refuses to pay. Unfortunately, that is a risk when it comes to dealing with the public.

The Athens Stock exchange’s general index was down over 6% at one point, but closed down over 4% on Monday. The National Bank of Greece SA (NYSE: NBG) was down 4.5% at $5.25 in New York ADR trading in mid-afternoon trading, although this could be continued worries over its banking operation in Turkey. In Turkey, both the iShares MSCI Turkey Investable Market Index (NYSE: TUR) and Turkish Investment Fund Inc. (NYSE: TKF) were each down another 1% or so as the prime minister again called for an end to the demonstrations. Back over Greece, the Global X FTSE Greece 20 ETF (NYSE: GREK) ETF was down 3.7% at $17.27 on last look.

We wonder if Fitch would have still issued last month’s credit rating upgrade for Greece if the nation’s privatization efforts were expected to come with no outside interest in buying the assets.

Greece First Developed Market Cut to Emerging at MSCI

Greece became the first developed nation to be cut to emerging-market status by MSCI Inc. (MSCI) after the local stock index plunged 83 percent since 2007.

Bloomberg,

12 June, 2013

Greece failed to meet criteria regarding securities borrowing and lending facilities, short selling and transferability, said MSCI, whose equity indexes are tracked by investors with about $7 trillion in assets. Qatar and the United Arab Emirates were raised to emerging markets, while Morocco was cut to a frontier market. New York-based MSCI kept South Korea and Taiwan as emerging markets, and placed Chinese shares traded on local exchanges on review for inclusion in the emerging category, according to a statement yesterday.

The ASE Index fell 1.4 percent to 882.99 at 1:49 p.m. in Athens. The gauge has dropped 10 percent this week as Greece failed to win any bids in a sale of the country’s gas monopoly. The unsuccessful attempt to sell Depa SA dented Greece’s state-asset sales program, which underpins 240 billion euros ($318 billion) of bailout loans from the euro area and International Monetary Fund.

“It is unclear yet what the weight of the MSCI Greece will be on emerging markets, but in any case it will be significantly higher than that it has on developed markets,” Constantinos Zouzoulas, an analyst at Axia Ventures Group, a brokerage in Athens, wrote in a note. “This could be positive news for the Greek market as it could attract more interest, although there could be pressure in the short term.”

Bailout Packages

Locked out of bond markets since April 2010, Greece accepted two European Union-led bailout packages as public opposition to pension and wage cuts derailed the pace of promised economic reforms. The ASE was the world’s second-worst performer since October 2007.

MSCI put Greece under review for downgrade in June 2012, saying restrictions on in-kind transfers, off-exchange transactions, stock lending and short-selling stopped the country from having a fully functional market. The probability of a demotion increased after Coca-Cola HBC AG, the soft-drink bottler that previously made up almost a quarter of the Athens Stock Exchange by weight, switched its primary listing to London in April.

The index provider upgraded Greece to developed-market status in 2001. The weight of Greek companies in the MSCI World Index has tumbled to 0.01 percent from 0.16 percent in May 2010, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

‘Safe Havens’

“We’re already seeing money heading back to safe havens and the MSCI decision may exacerbate that,” Peter Sorrentino, who helps manage about $14.7 billion at Huntington Asset Advisors in Cincinnati, said in a phone interview. “Greece’s downgrade brings them back to the forefront and it’s a sign that the crisis in Europe is far from over.”

MSCI’s reclassification of Greece follows Russell Investments, which advises funds with $2.4 trillion in assets. Russell said in March it will downgrade Greece to an emerging from a developed market after it failed economic and operational-risk assessments.

The ASE has rallied 85 percent since June 5, 2012, as Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras’s New Democracy party formed a coalition government after finishing first in repeat elections and European Central Bank President Mario Draghi vowed to do whatever it takes to preserve the euro......

Fresh water IS a human right!!

"Everybody Should Pay For Water Because It Is Not A Human Right”, Nestlé CEO!

Aotearoa: a Wider Persective,

22 April, 2013

Just in case your wondering why we are being prepared to have all our water tanks and water supplies privatized and exploited by John Key, his international mates and National here is a hint:

Nestlé CEO Peter Brabeck thinks we should not have the right to clean water (in fact he thinks that this an extreme opinion a we all know what that means)  and that we should all pay through the nose for it.

Government 'divide-and-rule' tactics

Radio NZ has 'udated' the story by headlining the government's response, rather than the claims which are perfectly true – this is pure 'divide and rule' on the part of the government.

The original headline was “Government using bullying tactics say Greens” 
 

Govt rejects bullying claim over iwi share offer

Finance Minister has dismissed claims that the government is bullying iwi into poor quality Treaty settlements

Radio New Zealand,

18 October, 2012

The Government on Wednesday said it would set aside shares in state-owned energy companies for about 65 iwi that have not yet settled their Treaty claims.

It plans to sell up to 49% of Mighty River Power in the first half of next year, and in the subsequent 12 months put up Genesis Energy and Meridian Energy for partial sale.

Iwi will be able to choose to receive asset shares as a form of credit on their final treaty settlement.

The Green party says some iwi are in a vulnerable negotiating position and will feel pressured to accept the commercial deal.

Mana Party leader Hone Harawira told Radio New Zealand's Morning Report programme the offer is a divide and rule tactic and a second rate deal. He said the offer is to cash-poor iwi which are desperate for anything, and his advice to them is to be very careful.

However Mr English said the offer is the result of an agreement between the Government and groups of iwi.

"It doesn't mean they'll all pick it up, but they'll be able to get part of their settlement paid a bit earlier ... and use that money to buy shares."

He said the bullying claims underestimate iwi who support the idea.

Treaty Negotiations Minister Chris Finlayson says similar deals have been done in the past and the shares offer would not change the total amount of settlements.

Mr Harawira says iwi are pursuing water rights and the issue will almost certainly go to court, and if iwi win, any share deal would be compromised.

But Maori Council lawyer Felix Geiringer says the claim for proprietory rights over water has nothing to do with the offer of shares and the offer neither resolves or interferes with the water dispute.

For the government response GO HERE

Here are the comments from Mana Party leader Hone Harawira

Country for Sale

Greek Privatization Chief Predicts Bonanza

Greece could become “an El Dorado for investors” as it moves decisively to sell off infrastructure assets, the new head of the country’s Privatization agency has said.

CNBC,

18 September, 2012

Takis Athanasopoulos expects the disposal of DEPA, the state natural gas utility, and its sister company DESFA, a gas distributor, to stimulate a drive to raise 19 billion euros ($24.88 billion) by the end of 2015, as agreed with Greece’s international creditors.

Mr. Athanasopoulos is confident he can pull off the landmark energy sale by early next year, opening the way for a series of infrastructure deals that would also create thousands of jobs to promote economic recovery.

“From now on, we should expect sharp criticism if we fail to deliver... The prime minister and our [European] partners are pressing hard for the process to move ahead,” Mr. Athanasopoulos said in a Financial Times interview.

“If we can change the psychology, Greece could become an El Dorado for investors. Our advantage is that the country isn’t saturated in any sector – especially tourism.”

Greece last year undertook to raise 50 billion euros from privatization's over the next decade as part of a medium-term reform program agreed with international lenders, but proceeds from asset sales so far have been modest in the face of opposition from unions, lawmakers and civil servants.

The Privatization agency’s last boss resigned in July, claiming investors were losing confidence in the country’s commitment to the program of disposals.

Mr. Athanasopoulos, a former vice-president of Toyota Motors’ European division, took over last month as president of the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund, or TAIPED, ending a four-month freeze on decision-making by the agency’s previous board of directors while Greece held two general elections.

Fourteen natural gas operators have already qualified as bidders for DEPA and DESFA, among them international groups such as Eni and Edison, Mitsui of Japan and Russia’s Gazprom, Greece’s main supplier of natural gas.

“We expect four or five companies to reach the final stage and to conclude a deal by the end of January,” said Mr. Athanasopoulos.

He declined to reveal a price target for the natural gas deal, but said Greece needed to be pragmatic about asset prices, given an unprecedented five-year recession and investors’ concern over whether the country will remain in the euro zone.

“It’s not the best of times for Greece... We have to get over this syndrome of unease about how long this recession will go on for; how long the country will remain in limbo [over the euro zone],” he said.

With one in four Greeks unemployed, creating jobs through commitments to future investment by asset purchasers has become more important than revenues from sales of state-controlled companies and long leases on state infrastructure assets. The finance ministry has announced that it wants to attract three euros of investment for every euro of Privatization income.

Mr. Athanasopoulos is trying an innovative approach to overcoming dozens of regulatory and administrative obstacles that discouraged potential investors during previous Privatization efforts – making a written agreement with each ministry involved in the process. He said: “Each list of measures that have to be taken is included in the ministry’s business plan, and can be referred directly to the prime minister.”

TAIPED’s portfolio includes several Greek utilities listed on the Athens stock exchange and hundreds of buildings and plots of land, including some prime coastal sites. It is adding 12 ports with potential for commercial or tourist development, including facilities on the islands of Corfu and Crete that could become hubs for cruise ship operators, and about 20 regional airports that could be upgraded to handle charter flights year-round.

However, Mr. Athanasopoulos concedes that only two deals are likely to be wrapped up this year: the sale of a 90-year lease on the former Olympic international broadcasting center, now a shopping mall with space for building entertainment facilities; and the disposal of the Hellenic State Lottery. The two privatization's would together raise a modest 300 million euros.

The biggest test for Mr. Athanasopoulos will be to push through the sale of a company set up to develop Hellenikon, the sprawling coastal site of the former Athens international airport.

Abandoned for almost a decade, apart from briefly hosting a few sports venues for the 2004 Athens Olympics, the site is seen by planners as potentially the largest urban regeneration project in Europe. But its scale, with costs estimated at 6 billion-10 billion euros, makes it a daunting prospect, even for big international property developers.

Four bidders – Qatari Diari Real Estate Investment, London & Regional Properties based in the UK, Elbit Systems of Israel and Greece’s Lamda Development – are participating in the second phase of the tender, due to be completed in 2013.

“This would be a long-term project, to be developed in several phases, that would make a real contribution to restoring growth,” said Mr. Athanasopoulos

Flogging off the silver

Italy puts palazzos up for sale

It’s no longer necessary to be a doge to own a palazzo in Venice as the Italian government plans to sell up for 350 historic building including palaces and castles in an effort to cut the country’s budget deficit.

RT,

10 August, 2012

The government hopes to raise as much as €1.5 billion through the historic property sales, according to the Agenzia del Demanio, the agency that manages the state's real estate assets. Currently the Italian state owns properties worth about 42 billion euro, according to a report by Edoardo Reviglio, chief economist of bank Cassa Depositi e Prestiti.

The city of Venice is going to sell 18 properties, including the 18th century Diedo Palace, which served as a criminal court for years. The price tag for the palace is 19 million euro. Milan intends to sell more than 100 buildings, including the Palazzo Bolis Gualdo. The city hopes to get as much as 31 million euro for that palace.

Among the other properties put up for sale are army barracks in Bologna and Soriano nel Cimino's Orsini Castle in the Lazio region. The former prison was built by Pope Nicholas III in the 1270s.

Earlier this year, the island of Sardinia sold many of the lighthouses that used to attract thousands of tourists. The island’s autonomous government said it could no longer afford the cost of maintaining as well as restoring the lighthouses. Many of them were converted into hotels, galleries, and museums.