New Plymouth District Council Mayor Peter Tennent, chief executive Rodger Kerr-Newell, the council's legal and financial advisers, plus some Prime Infrastructure people were due to be talking to the panel behind closed doors in Auckland this morning.

Although the NPDC, Taranaki Electricity Trust and Powerco Wanganui Trust have formally accepted Prime’s offer for their 53.65% stake in Powerco, the panel can still scuttle the deal. Also, Finance Minister Michael Cullen has yet to decide on whether Prime can take over Powerco.

Tennent is reported as admitting the panel can stop the deal and that if it finds problems “then clearly our friends at Prime will have to find another way of achieving satisfaction”.

The council is refusing to divulge the fee it agreed to pay its financial adviser, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC), to sell any “surplus” Prime securities to Sydney-based Tricom Equities above the agreed 62.5% cash-37.5% bonds mix. PWC partner Craig Rice is also declining to specify details.

It was the NPDC-Tricom deal, brokered by PWC, that the panel last week said might breach the takeover code if it was found to be unfair to other Powerco shareholders.

As well, Tennent has criticised the panel’s exemption to foreign security holders - which saw a phenomenal 160 million-plus (or 43%) Powerco shares traded last month as shareholders sought cash only and not bonds.