KEY POINTS:
It's time for Lloyd Morrison to put his head above the parapet.
It is now clear his investment company Infratil was among the potential buyers of Auckland International Airport talking to the board back in June.
Even if Infratil was just kicking the tyres, it will raise questions
about his reasons for seeking a seat on the AIA board next month.
Is it a conflict of interest? Not necessarily. But it all depends on how he sees Infratil's role in the future ownership structure of the airport.
That is something shareholders need to hear - from him preferably.
Morrison has been overseas, leaving his colleagues at Infratil to talk about what might be on the agenda.
While they are upfront about Infratil's ultimate interest being to maximise value to Infratil shareholders, suspicions remain about Morrison's ownership aspirations.
If anything, those suspicions are driven by his excellent track record in making acquisitions.
Morrison is too smart not to have a big game plan here - or so some would have it.
It is possible he is working on a strategy to unlock value from the airport which would keep it in New Zealand hands and satisfy all the disparate parties holding AIA shares.
The idea that the charismatic, music-loving Wellingtonian could broker a win-win solution to this complex process is compelling.
But the vague idea currently being advanced in some quarters - that the whole sale process should begin again after the board elections - seems a little hard to fathom.
The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board has a serious offer on the table.
At issue is whether it is offering enough value in cash and whether it is dynamic enough to ensure that those investors left holding shares are happy with the new company structure.
Those are the issues which theboard is working through.
Almost eight months into a sale process, they are issues that shareholders should get a chance to decide on.
And in the meantime the process is still live. There is nothing to stop other interested parties from stepping up if they think they can provide a more compelling alternative.
You can bet the likes of Macquarie are still watching proceedings closely.
The AIA sale is one of the messiest, most politically charged corporate sales the country has seen since the 1990s.
Morrison has thrown himself in to the centre of this highly politicised process. It's time he presented some policies.
Tackling the flak
It always feels a bit like being summoned to the principal's office when the corporate heavyweights get in touch for a "chat".
In the past few weeks two leaders of two of the market's biggest listed companies have made contact to point out some of the complexities of the job they face.
Both SkyCity's Elmar Toime and Auckland Airport's John Maasland have borne the brunt of pretty strong criticism over the way their boards have handled approaches by potential buyers this year.
Although that criticism has been reflected in the Business Herald, it is being driven - as it should be- by brokers and shareholders who want to get the best possiblereturn on their investments.
Despite both being embroiled in a complex sale process, the SkyCity and airport scenarios are quite different.
But a point which both Maasland and Toime are at pains to make is that they did not put their companies up for sale. In both cases prospective buyers came knocking.
Rejecting the advances of suitors out of hand means not finding out what's on offer.
Taking talks further almost always involves confidentiality clauses.
Maasland argues that Dubai Aerospace arrived with a relatively basic proposal and that the board worked through that to a point where it offered some real value. At that point they "opened the process to the world".
He also makes the point that the decisions made by the board at that time were unanimous and that targeting any one board member in particular is unfair.
SkyCity's board has copped even harsher criticism for letting potential buyers in the door while it is supposed to be getting its house in order.
The company is already trying to sell off some non-performing assets and recruit a new chief executive. Executive director Toime concedes there are communication issues he would handle differently if he had the chance again.
He doesn't regret letting the market know about the potential buyer but he wishes it had been made clear that the board and management aren't putting restructuring plans on hold while a sale process continues.
He'll get his chance to address that at the group's AGM next Friday.
But he is adamant the board has not raised the white flag - it is still compiling shortlists of new chief executives, buyers for the cinemas and so on.
Unfortunately this conjures up the image of someone attempting to juggle too many balls at once. The end result is often that they may all end up on the ground.
That's what some major shareholders are concerned about. But if Toime can pull this off it's going to be one hell of a show.
* Liam Dann is business editor of the Herald
