Mighty River Power

The Green taliban just can’t help themselves when it comes to telling fibs. Of course they are aided and abetted by the left-wing slant of the NZ Herald who give them prominent headlines featuring their lies.

The Green Party says that shares sold in the recent float of Mighty River Power went to only a small group of investors – and claims of widespread ‘mum and dad’ ownership are false.

They say half of the shares in Mighty River Power sold by the Government went to just 13,000 people, with 10 per cent going to just 400 individuals, trusts and organisations.  Read more »

Here is a very interesting dilemma for Auckland Council and Len. The growth of Auckland requires infrastructure to service it. Only they have not enough potable water so it means they want more from the Waikato River. But they can’t get more unless other permits are given up and Mighty River Power is fighting for priority over water rights.

Whereas Contact and Mighty River’s interests lie in the upper stretches of the Waikato, Watercare is a bottom-end user. Its appeal against the RPS reflects the reality that its thirst for future water comes a long way down the list, even though municipal water suppliers are accorded priority status.

New applicants have been lined up for some time ahead of Watercare for a share in available Waikato flow, meaning Auckland’s water company will get an assured supply only if a permit holder gives up its consented take, more water becomes available or if the regional council decides not to renew consents when they expire at the usual term of 10 years.  Read more »

via mediaspanonline.com

Katie Bradford-Crozier writes at ZB

International interest in the Mighty River Power float was high, so 13.5 per cent of the company will now be owned by overseas investors.

The Finance Minister revealed details of the share allocation and pricing of the energy company last night.

113,000 Kiwis have bought shares, at $2.50 a pop.

Bill English says offshore institutions have been allocated $472 million worth of shares – but those were limited to ensure 86.5 per cent of the company was kept in New Zealand hands.

No wonder the share price hasn’t crashed to the $2.00 – $2.20 level that the Green Taliban and Labour were crowing about.  There is genuine interest in the Mighty River Power float.

Read more »

Chris Trotter discusses the failed Green/Labour petition to re-write an election result.

The attempt to use the Citizens Initiated Referendum process to halt the Government’s partial privatisation programme was always a risky strategy. Political parties, in particular, take a huge risk in associating their names with operations in which so many things, over which they have no control, can go wrong. And now, of course, they have gone wrong – badly wrong – and at the worst possible moment.

It’s the perception that the “Keep Our Assets” petition has failed, on the very eve of the Government learning how much Mighty River Power’s shares are worth, that’s done the damage.

Political insiders may know that CIRs almost always fall short on the first official count. That someone has only to shift flats, and write their new address on the petition form, for the Clerk of the House to disallow that person’s signature. Unfortunately, 90 percent of the voters don’t know. If John Key tells them that one-in-four of the petition’s signatures are “fake” – they’re quite likely to believe him.  Read more »

The Green/Labour attempted sabotage of the Mighty River Power float was only partially successful. Sensible investors stayed the course and have now received a healthy discount for their shares...meaning they can buy more for the money invested.

Investors in Mighty River Power will pay $2.50 per share, the government said this evening.

Of the shares issued, 86.5 per cent will be New Zealand owned (spread over 110,000 shareholders):  26.9 per cent by New Zealand retail investors, 8.6 per cent by New Zealand institutions and with the Crown retaining a majority 51 per cent shareholding.  That leaves 13.5 per cent for overseas institutions.

The share price will raise $1.7 billion for government coffers.   Read more »

Via the tipline:

Not many visitors to this unpopular far edge of the blogosphere will be clicking that ad.

Colin Espiner is no friend of the government, but when he says this you know that Labour’s power policy is poos:

Has Labour actually gone insane? As in stark, raving, Monster Loony Party mad?

I’m assuming the answer is yes, judging by today’s incredulity-creating announcement that, if elected next year, Labour will essentially nationalise the electricity industry.

The Opposition says it’s going to create a single buyer, NZ Power, that will buy all the country’s electricity generation “at a fair price” and then onsell it to consumers.

It’ll pretty much give away a 300KW bloc to every household and then charge for additional units.

At a stroke, Labour is proposing to dismantle the electricity market, ruin Contact Energy and Mighty River Power and decimate the Government’s share float plans for both MRP and Meridian.   Read more »

Via the Tipline:

NEW ZEALAND GREEN PARTY PRESS RELEASE

EMBARGO: Noon, Thursday 18 April 2013

In an unprecedented joint-policy statement between the Green Party and the Labour Party, Green Party co-leader Dr Russel Norman and Labour Party leader David Shearer announce that the next New Zealand government will claim back New Zealanders’ electricity supply using a multi faceted strategy.

“New Zealanders are sick of seeing their power prices rise year after year. They are sick at seeing their power companies being sold off to foreign interests, and they are sick of seeing outdated methods of energy generation such as oil, coal and gas being used to create expensive electricity that pollutes the environment”, said Dr Russel Norman.

“It is time for new thinking in the electricity generation sector. With global warming driven droughts and floods, our hydro generation assets are becoming less reliable, and generating electricity by burning fossil fuel is costly, dirty and inefficient”.

“In New Zealand, we don’t just have a problem with economic power generation, but we also have the challenge where the generation of electricity is mostly done in the least populated part of Aotearoa, and then we have the challenge of transmitting it to the most populated parts via a tenuous cable that runs between Te Ika-a-Maui and Te Waipounamu (North and South Island)”.

“Today, the Green and Labour Parties announce our new Electricity Generation Policy based on Micro Nuclear Power generation. We intend to deploy modular, scalable Light Water Reactor nuclear power plant systems, each unit producing 45MW of electricity throughout New Zealand, starting where it is needed most: in Auckland”.

“The advantage of this system is that the plants are scalable, so a generation facility can have just have 1 unit, or as many as 24 units, depending on the demand for electricity, and the multimodule plants are highly reliable, so one unit can be taken out of service for refuelling or maintenance, or a new unit added without affecting operation of the others”.

“Fuel will be provided by the nuclear waste materials already collected from our hospitals and public and private research and engineering facilities. Until now, nuclear fuel pellets that are no longer viable for medical, research or engineering use have been stockpiled for bulk shipping to an overseas processing facility. The Micro Nuclear Power plants will utilise these pellets to generate electricity for our country”.

“Rivers can be returned to the wild, generation lakes can be returned to the land, and our people can once more enjoy the natural beauty of our country without the scars that hydro generation has caused to date”.

“In practical terms, the cost of electricity generation utilising Micro Nuclear Power generation will be approximately a third of what it costs using fossil fuels and expensive hydro transmission today, while at the same time using clean, safe nuclear power. The fact we can utilise nuclear fuel pellets that were previously wasted fits within our Green reduce, reuse, recycle philosophy.”

Comparative electricity generation costs – New Zealand Green Party

“Nobody is scared to go to hospital because they use nuclear materials in their facilities. There have never been any accidents or incidents. It is this same, safe, efficient fuel that will power our homes and our industries”.

“We will be the envy of the world”, Dr Russel Norman added. “People have been demanding we show them our “Green Tech”, and today we are proud to lead New Zealand into a new and secure era of electricity supply”.

Finally…will someone actually call Labour out on all the big spending promises?

Once Shearer’s told us how much is in the offshore bank account, he can tell us how he’ll reduce power prices.

After he explains why countries with power companies in mixed ownership do better than us , he can tackle the walking on water trick.

Lowering power company profits also lowers dividends to the government. They have just spent years explaining that once you lose the dividends they are gone forever and now he is suggesting lowering those dividends through some means as yet undefined.

With appearances like this you have to wonder if he is being set up.

Labour has declared that their yet to be announced electricity reforms will hurt investors in Mighty River Power.

Prime Minister John Key is dismissing Labour’s claims it would be able to stem increasing power prices, as shares in state owned enterprise Mighty River Power go on sale today.

The Labour Party says if it gets back into Government it will reform the electricity sector, and is warning against investing in the state owned enterprise.

Labour Party leader David Shearer says Labour intends to make changes to stop the relentless rise in power bills.

He says he wants New Zealanders to be aware of his plans before they invest in Mighty River Power. 
  
Shearer did not say exactly what those changes would be.  Read more »