Strong offshore interest in SOE float
One New Zealand investment banker says he has already taken calls from European and American fund managers.
One New Zealand investment banker says he has already taken calls from European and American fund managers.
Overseas investors, including European "green" funds, are lining up for a piece of Mighty River Power.
The Supreme Court has rejected a Maori Council bid to halt the government's partial privatisation programme, with Mighty River Power first off the block.
One investment banker, speaking anonymously, says the float has attracted the interest of European and American funds with sustainable or socially-responsible investment policies.
"We have taken calls," the source says in today's new-look National Business Review print edition.
Meanwhile, Auckland's Diane Foreman, worth an estimated $175 million on the NBR Rich List, tells Georgina Bond she is on the lookout for new opportunities beyond New Zealand Natural ice cream.
"It doesn't have to be food," she says.
In NBR Property, Chris Hutching reports the number of commercial property deals over $5 million is approaching the 2007 peak.
Inland Revenue is copping flack for its "egregious" stance as a tax stoush broke out at a parliamentary select committee hearing this week, economics editor Rob Hosking reports.
In Business Traveller, editor Nevil Gibson says one of the world's wealthiest rulers, Qatar's Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, might be visiting New Zealand. Could that have anything to do with Qatar Airlines' possible push into New Zealand?
New Zealand Initiative research fellow Luke Malpass picks a scrap with Britain's "sacred cow": the National Health Service.
He says it is one department both sides of politics think should be immune from public sector cuts, forever – a situation which Mr Malpass calls "nuts".