As widely reported:
Ministers reject advice – halt China Lochinver Station sale
Government ministers Paula Bennett and Louise Upston have gone against a recommendation by the Overseas Investment Office and turned down a $88 million bid by Chinese billionaire Jiang Zhaobai’s flagship firm to buy the Lochinver Station.
The Overseas Investment Office had recommended the Chinese-owned Pure 100 Farm Ltd be accepted in what Associate Finance Minister Paula Bennett described as a “finely balanced” decision. However, ministers did not believe the benefits to New Zealand were great enough and used their discretion to reject it. …
This was the right decision – surprisingly so:
It is the first time ministers have rejected a bid to buy a significant landholding in New Zealand since the rules were tightened in 2012 during the Crafar Farms decision to require the OIO to assess whether a foreign buyer could offer more than a New Zealand buyer would.
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