The Waitangi Tribunal has three weeks to produce its views on Maori claims to water rights so that the partial privatisation of Mighty River Power can proceed. Photo / Supplied
Market convention suggests the Government will want to register a prospectus for shares in Mighty River Power as soon as possible after the company reports its annual financial result on August 28.
Initial public offers (IPOs) are complex and lengthy processes. Under the Securities Act, a company has nine months
after its accounts are presented to launch a prospectus, but standard practice is for offer documents to be launched soon after a company reports its results to ensure that the information in them is as up-to-date as possible.
"The further you get away from your year-end, the more likely it is that you will need to disclose some [additional] financial information to ensure that your offer documents are accurate, because the performance of your business will have moved on," said Michael Pollard, a specialist corporate partner at Simpson Grierson.
"Typically you try and go quite close to a set of year-end numbers, or a set of half-year numbers, because you want to make sure that the information you put in the offer documents are a good representation of the financial performance of the position of the business."
Promoters of new share issues are keen to avoid the "silly season" for financial markets over the late December and January periods, when markets shut down for the Christmas break, although last year's December 13 float of Trade Me was well supported.
