Not sure what all the SoE Treaty Clause fuss is about.
Easily solved.
Indemnify the companies. Essentially what the act does now. Risk unchanged and stays with the crown.
If the Maori Party settle for less they are stupid.
Better still of course, abandon the sell down.
The Maori Party and their iwi allies want (free?) shares in the SOEs being sold. They want to be both the hound and the fox( that gets away)
Isn’t the whole point of the partial sale to move some of the risk away from the Crown?
Buyer beware and all that….
Gregor, I’ve never heard or read that a reason for sale was to remove risk from the Crown, I thought it was predominantly about boosting the NZX and paying down a little debt and paying into infrastructure?
They haven’t got the guts to admit that this was a daft idea and cancel the sales.
Tracey –
Sorry, I should have been clearer.
I meant that risk reduction is implied in the transfer of ownership.
If the State was to indemnify every shareholder in any publicly traded company from financial risk it would completely distort the market.
Risk is (and should) be build into pricing calculations.