Tasman Pacific faces filing action

By DANIEL RIORDAN

The Companies Office is considering legal action against Tasman Pacific Airlines, the company operating the Qantas NZ franchise, for not filing its financial accounts.

The struggling airline, locked in sale negotiations with Qantas Airways, could face a fine of $100,000 if found to be at fault, says John McPherson, manager of the office's securities and financial reporting division.

Mr McPherson says the office is taking legal advice after losing patience with Tasman Pacific.

The airline's annual return for the year to June last year was due by December 31. Despite repeated requests from the office, it has still to be filed.

Under the 1993 Financial Reporting Act, unlisted companies such as Tasman Pacific must file results if they are more than 25 per cent foreign owned.

Australians owned 28.2 per cent of Tasman Pacific when the company bought Ansett NZ a year ago, the most recent shareholding information shows.

But Mr McPherson said some doubt existed about Tasman Pacific's ownership status after reports that Australians Ken Cowley and Ken Parker had sold some of their combined 6 per cent stake.

Dunedin businessman Graeme Marsh bought half of that stake last May, but it's not known how much else Australian investors may have offloaded.

Those investors include the company Mr Cowley chairs, RM Williams, Mr Cowley as an individual, and media mogul Kerry Stokes.

Although Mr Cowley has said he does not see his stake in Qantas NZ as a long-term investment, spokesman John Cordery said last week that Mr Cowley remained a substantial shareholder. He gave no further details.

Mr McPherson said the Companies Office wrote to Tasman Pacific at the end of January asking why it had not filed. When it received no response the office sent another request to the airline in April. This again went unanswered.

Mr Cordery could not be reached for comment last night after news of the Companies Office's intentions broke. Last week he said the delay in filing the results was unrelated to the negotiations with Qantas.

Meanwhile, Airline Pilots Association president Keith Molloy says his union is annoyed that Qantas NZ has not been keeping its staff informed about the negotiations.

He said a Qantas NZ executive had told him to expect an announcement on Thursday of last week.

This week, he had been told an announcement would be made on Thursday then, when that deadline passed, Friday.

He had written to the company seeking more information.

Mr Molloy said reports that Qantas would slash the local workforce and use Australian-based cabin crew and pilots if it takes over its New Zealand franchisee were likely to be wide of the mark.

"There's simply no surplus of cabin crew, pilots or planes available."

Executives at other unions representing Qantas NZ staff told the Business Herald they had also been kept in the dark about what was happening.

Frequent speculation that a sale agreement is close continues to be met by a wall of silence from the two parties.

Qantas NZ says no timetable has been set on negotiations, while a Qantas spokeswoman says as soon as negotiations are completed, an announcement will be made to the Australian Stock Exchange.