The NGC board committee of independent directors – former chief executive and now chairman Richard Bentley, Rick Bettle and former Labour cabinet minister Fran Wilde - is overseeing NGC’s response to Vector’s takeover notice made earlier this week.

It is the second Vector takeover bid for NGC. The Auckland infrastructure company last year bought AGL’s 66.05% of NGC for NZ$2.91 per share. It is also the second appointment of Grant Samuel, which assessed that first bid.

Earlier this week, Vector announced it was aiming to snap up the 32.8% of NGC that it did not already own, offering NZ$3.40 for each NGC share – NZ$0.78 in cash and the rest in new shares that will have an issue price of NZ$2.62. Vector announced a NZ$593 million initial public offering in conjunction with the NGC bid.

NGC said that as well as Grant Samuel assessing the new Vector offer to minority shareholders, NGC would again be preparing a target company statement as required by the New Zealand Takeovers Code.