Prime Minister John Key has confirmed a Kiwibank request for additional capital but continues to hold out on whether a partial share float is being considered as a solution.
At a sustained hot seat session at yesterday's post-cabinet press conference, Mr
Prime Minister John Key has confirmed a Kiwibank request for additional capital but continues to hold out on whether a partial share float is being considered as a solution.
At a sustained hot seat session at yesterday’s post-cabinet press conference, Mr Key said he could understand the logic behind public demand for shares in state-backed assets like Kiwibank, given the “concerns New Zealanders have about finance companies”.
He confirmed that the NZ Post Board had asked the government for a Kiwibank capital injection, following a period of rapid growth, but denied that the bank was “short of cash”.
“There are a number of options,” Mr Key said. “One is that we refuse that request, the second is that we could look to grow Kiwibank through a capital injection ourselves, just in the same way we did with Kiwirail.”
Should the government and Kiwibank decide to raise capital through the sale of shares to mum and dad investors, Mr Key acknowledged the difficulty of regulating secondary sales to overseas companies.
“You can control the first purchase of a share, you can’t necessarily easily control the second purchase of a share,” he said, adding that the Air New Zealand A and B share model “hasn’t always been a successful structure.”
Mr Key refused to be drawn on whether National would reverse its commitment not to sell state assets, should it win a second term in government.
“I’m not saying there couldn’t be a change, it’s possible, but I also wouldn’t guarantee that there would be one.”
National will start work on 2011 election policy later this year, Mr Key said.
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