The government sold 20% of its shares in AirNZ in the last 2 days. In 2001, the airline was in financial trouble. Some other airlines around the world were interested in buying the company so instead the New Zealand government bought a 73% share of AirNZ. This cost $880 million.
Now, the government wants to sell shares in many state assets – energy companies and AirNZ. The AirNZ shares were sold very quickly on Monday and Tuesday. Bill English, the Minister of Finance, said that 84% of these shares would be sold to New Zealanders. However, it is not possible to stop share-holders from selling their shares to overseas buyers in the future.
The share price yesterday was $1.65 but today it was down to $1.60.
A referendum on whether the government should sell state assets will begin on Friday but it will be too late to stop any sales.
Listen to March 6th 2013, July 22nd 2012 and November 7th 2011 to learn more about the government’s asset sales.
Vocabulary
- shares – also called stocks
- state – government owned
- assets – property you own e.g. your house and car; the government owns electricity companies etc.
- referendum – vote