Wellington’s DominionPost today says successful High Court action by Warren Kyd, who chairs the Auckland Energy Consumer Trust that owns Vector, could clear the way for the company to bid for NGC before a formal tender process starts and, hopefully, beat any rival Australian infrastructure players.
Vector may seal the deal, which is codenamed Project Nugget at the company, by Wednesday with NGC's present share price (NZ$3.05), pushing a takeover bid to around the NZ$1.3 billion mark, according to the paper.
Kyd, a former National Party MP, is taking legal action to push for three trustees, John Collinge, Michael Buczkowski and Shale Chambers, to be dismissed and replaced by pro-privatisation politicians Earl White, William Cairns and Sam Bassett - son of former Labour cabinet minister Michael Bassett.
The paper says Vector management is refusing to comment on any court actions, but has already “approved” Project Nugget, which will require a huge issue of shares in Vector to raise about NZ$700 million .
Australian Gas Light announced in late August that it was selling its 66% stake in NGC, saying then that it would soon issue sale process details.
However, it has yet to do so. New Zealand's takeover laws require Vector to bid for all the shares in NGC if it secures AGL's holding.
