Latest / Best of Business / Jenee Tibshraeny: NZ Herald Wellington business editor on the Government's plan to inject more capital into Kiwibank

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Jenee Tibshraeny: NZ Herald Wellington business editor on the Government's plan to inject more capital into Kiwibank · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talks b Follow
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  Speaker 2: Now, the government's dropping more hints that it's looking to
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  Speaker 2: find ways to inject more capital into Kiwibank, obviously to
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  Speaker 2: improve competition in the banking sector. The Minister of State
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  Speaker 2: Owned Enterprises, Paul Goldsmith says the government is looking into it.
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  Speaker 2: Jane Tibshrainey is The Herald's Wellington business editor with us now,
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  Speaker 2: how do you.
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  Speaker 3: Name hey, Heather?
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  Speaker 2: So it's got a couple of options here, right, it
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  Speaker 2: can obviously inject the cash itself, this is the government.
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  Speaker 2: Or it can sell down part of its share in Kiwibank.
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  Speaker 2: Which is the most likely?
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  Speaker 1: Do you think?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah? That's right. Look, I can't say which one is
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  Speaker 3: the most likely at the moment, but I think basically
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  Speaker 3: it actually know, maybe I can maybe I can speculate.
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  Speaker 3: As we all know, the government is cutting costs, we
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  Speaker 3: have a lot of debt, so the chances of it
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  Speaker 3: forking out billions of dollars to put into the Kiwibank
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  Speaker 3: right now probably is unlikely, particularly at a time we've
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  Speaker 3: got people in the public sector lose their jobs. People
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  Speaker 3: crying out for more funding for nurses, police, so on
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  Speaker 3: and so on. Also, this government, I believe isn't as
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  Speaker 3: wedded to the concept of QB Bank being entirely government owned.
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  Speaker 3: Now I've talked to Paul Goldsmith also Nichola Willis, the
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  Speaker 3: Finance Minister, and they are open minded as to how
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  Speaker 3: to get more capital into Qvybank to enable it to grow.
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  Speaker 3: Now before people think the government's going to rush out
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  Speaker 3: and sell it to some foreign investors or something, I'm
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  Speaker 3: not sure if that would happen. You know, there are
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  Speaker 3: a lot of options, including, for example, selling part of
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  Speaker 3: it back to the Superfund, for example, which previously owned
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  Speaker 3: a stake in kV Bank. So I think that there
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  Speaker 3: are a bunch of options and something like that I
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  Speaker 3: think could be quite quite workable.
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  Speaker 2: If Superfund were to buy into it. Does the government
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  Speaker 2: have any control over who's super Fund then on sells
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  Speaker 2: it to if they want well that yeah.
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  Speaker 3: Look, that is the key point and that is an
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  Speaker 3: issue that the previous labor government had because when Kwibank
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  Speaker 3: was owned by New Zealand Post acc and the Superfund
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  Speaker 3: acc and New Zealand Post wanted out and the Superfund
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  Speaker 3: said that's Okay, we'll buy your stakes on the on
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  Speaker 3: the condition that if we want to sell out at
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  Speaker 3: some point or we want to welcome capital from private investors,
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  Speaker 3: then we should be able to do that. Now, Grant
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  Speaker 3: Robertson didn't like that idea, and that's why the government
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  Speaker 3: ended up buying Kiwibank outright for two point one billion dollars.
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  Speaker 3: You know, I think this government is showing increasing signs
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  Speaker 3: that it would be open to different options. Now, Nicola
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  Speaker 3: Willis and Paul Goldsmith outright told me that Paul Goldsmith
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  Speaker 3: also wrote has written to the KWI Bank board saying,
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  Speaker 3: come to me with options for how you think we
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  Speaker 3: can grow Kiwibank. And also, interestingly, the government is busy
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  Speaker 3: working on doing something different. It's working on writing purpose
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  Speaker 3: statements for all the companies and enterprises that it owns. Now,
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  Speaker 3: the Treasury reckons this is a valuable exercise because it
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  Speaker 3: wants the government to put down on paper what exactly
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  Speaker 3: is the point of owning enterprises. Now ki Bank is
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  Speaker 3: at the top of the priority list for this exercise.
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  Speaker 3: The Treasury has said, look, we're doing this. It doesn't
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  Speaker 3: mean to say we're trying to assess what to sell.
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  Speaker 3: But if it comes out that there is no point
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  Speaker 3: owning some of these entities, including Kiwibank, the government could
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  Speaker 3: potentially make a case to sell entertaining part of it.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, David Seymour's keen on that, Like, he's made it
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  Speaker 2: quite clear that he wants to sell down some of
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  Speaker 2: our assets. But now would the NATS feel about that.
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  Speaker 3: Look at the moment, they are just saying they are
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  Speaker 3: open minded and that they will assess the options. Now
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  Speaker 3: that sounds like a boring answer, but I think it
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  Speaker 3: is a significant answer because previously governments have said straight
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  Speaker 3: up no. You know, they've said no. For example, Labor
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  Speaker 3: Grant Robertson said no, k we mean because Zion done
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  Speaker 3: and you know, government owned and that's how we're keeping it.
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  Speaker 3: So I think this is a broader sort of piece
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  Speaker 3: of work that will simmer away in the background. Paul
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  Speaker 3: Goldsmith has said, now he's the Minister for State owned Enterprises,
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  Speaker 3: that he wouldn't do anything drastic, Any big thing would
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  Speaker 3: would be taken to the election and voters would have
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  Speaker 3: their say. But you could assume that this exercise that's
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  Speaker 3: happening where they're doing these purpose statements, if those come
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  Speaker 3: back and say, why the heck do we own this enterprise.
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  Speaker 3: You could assume they could go to the next election
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  Speaker 3: and say, look, we're campaigning on selling it or were
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  Speaker 3: selling part of it.
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  Speaker 2: Music to my ears. I'm here for that, Jena. Thank you,
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  Speaker 2: Jane Tim Trainey, The Herald's Wellington business enter.
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