By SIMON HENDERY, tourism writer
Tourism operator Shotover Jet will disappear off the NZX board at the end of this week, following completion of Ngai Tahu's takeover of the business.
The South Island tribe - through its Ngai Tahu Holdings Corporation - has completed compulsory acquisition of 100 per cent of the
company, five years after it first climbed aboard as a shareholder.
Shotover Jet is a high-profile asset for Ngai Tahu, which has built up a portfolio of tourism and other businesses with its $170 million Treaty of Waitangi settlement.
The Queenstown-based company runs jetboat rides on the Shotover, Dart, Kawerau and Waikato Rivers. It also owns Rainbow Springs and a Fiji jetboat business.
The first jetboat operation began on the Shotover in 1965.
Ngai Tahu has been keen to buy out minority interests in the business, but the tribe's ride from its 38 per cent initial holding in 1999 to full control has been at times a bumpy one.
One reason has been the frugal nature of Ngai Tahu's various takeover offers. In 2002, when its stake was just over 80 per cent, it offered to buy other shareholders out at 60c a share. Few agreed and the offer was raised to 70c.
It closed with Ngai Tahu holding 88.3 per cent of the company - close to the 90 per cent level required to trigger compulsory acquisition.
The offer was later raised to 90c and then $1.03 before Ngai Tahu was finally able to cross the 90 per cent threshold.
But disgruntled small shareholders had more to say as compulsory acquisition loomed.
They made Takeovers Code history by forcing the first-ever appointment of an "independent expert" to assess the value of their shares, and the fair price that Ngai Tahu should pay.
Last month's independent expert report by Horwath Porter Wigglesworth priced the shares at $1.18.
With the rocky ride to delisting over, Shotover Jet will disappear from the sharemarket tables and the gaze of analysts.
But around the world its jetboats will continue to be as eye-catching as ever, for anyone watching a travel show about New Zealand.
