KEY POINTS:
Manukau City Mayor Sir Barry Curtis is suggesting he won't be selling the council's stake in Auckland International Airport.
But that won't necessarily kill any takeover bid for the airport - nor will it necessarily kill any chance of Manukau Council co-operating with an acquirer.
Curtis says council
officials are in talks with two parties who are interested in its 10.5 per cent stake in the airport and the officials will get back to the councillors with a recommendation about what to do with the shares.
Selling the shares outright is indeed unlikely - Curtis believes infrastructure assets should remain in public ownership and is proud that unlike other councils Manukau hasn't sold down its stake.
But Manukau City could do something else.
"Manukau City Council has a resolved position - longstanding - whereupon we would entertain an approach from anybody who would be wishing to discuss with us how we could enhance the value of the council's significant shareholding," Curtis told the Business Herald. (And, yes, he really does talk like that.)
"We are having discussions on how that might be achieved, but only discussions, no formal proposals."
This suggests Manukau would consider tipping its shares into another ownership structure, as long as it could retain ultimate ownership.
One possibility is perhaps swapping the shares for a stake in a new company that would take over the airport. The new owners - of whom Manukau would be one - could then use the airport's conservative balance sheet to take some cash out.
Another possibility could be retaining the shares themselves, but realising some cash by taking part in the sale of the management rights to the airport.
Who knows. Maybe something completely different is being planned.
What we do know is very little.
It is as follows: Auckland Airport is in discussions with an unspecified number of "parties" about acquiring an interest in the airport. This was announced by the airport after the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board tried to buy some shareholders' stakes in preparation for a possible takeover bid.
Auckland City Council - which owns 12.75 per cent - is consulting ratepayers about selling its holding.
By counting up the number of investment banks advising parties in this deal, it seems there must be at least three potential suitors. The Canadians are one (though there are suggestions they might have dropped out), another is rumoured to be Dubai International Airport, and all sorts of names are being bandied about for the third.
Curtis confirms two approaches from parties, and says Dubai isn't one of them "but we are aware they're floating around in the wind".
He doesn't appear to think they're particularly advanced in their planning, saying the Middle Eastern airport company is "perhaps trying to get some propellers and a jet engine and a rudder attached to itself".
Attempts by the Business Herald this week to get more information from Dubai International Airport didn't come to much either.
A spokesman for the airport promised to "check with His Highness" - presumably Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum - but has not been heard from since.
Where there's a vacuum of information rumour quickly moves to fill it, which is what appears to be happening with Auckland Airport.
* Christopher Niesche is business editor of the Herald
