Apparently National are considering 3 asset sales this year. Mighty River in May / June, and perhaps 2 in November, as there are only 2 windows you can really make a sale in (due to rules around accounting numbers etc).
Can they really be serious about having 2 major sales at the same time? How much spare “mum and dad” capital do they think is out there? How do they expect to get a good price?
Selling all 3 electricity companies over the course of 6-12 months is going to mean that this sector is completely saturated. The NZSX will be completely lopsided and unbalanced towards the utility sector. All free capital for productive NZ companies will have been soaked up, meaning a lack of cash for our exporters and manufacturers to expand.
By the time they flog the last power co, shares in Mighty River (and those Contact ones remaining in NZ hands) will be heading to foreign hands at a rate of knots.
It’s a stupid idea to sell these assets for so many reasons, from lost revenue to lost sovereignty, higher power prices to higher current account deficit and taxes…
But if National are determined to do it, they could at least try and be a bit competent about the sales process.
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