Supercompany share float mooted

By IRENE CHAPPLE

If proposed Maori fishing supercompany Aotearoa Fisheries Ltd is created it will consider offering shares to the public in a bid to become a serious commercial operator.

The company's creation is part of a Treaty of Waitangi Fisheries Commission distribution plan of Maori commercial fisheries assets revealed this week, the latest attempt to settle the long-running issue.

Aotearoa Fisheries would become an umbrella holding company for the commission's assets, which include a 50 per cent shareholding in New Zealand's largest seafood business, Sealord, and an 84 per cent shareholding in Moana Pacific.

The company's proponents say fragmentation of the commission's commercial fishing assets - it is involved in six separate companies - is holding it back in an industry in which, they argue, bigger is better.

Treaty of Waitangi Fisheries Commission chairman Shane Jones says the company will move Maori from the courtroom to the boardroom.

Jones says the sharemarket may be used to raise capital should it go ahead. The company may also "mop up" smaller fishing companies.

Jones argues the company's creation will allow Maori to move away from the "political baggage" of the commission and focus on financial return for iwi.



The Aotearoa Fisheries structure will have two types of shares: voting shares and income shares.

The voting shares, effectively management control, will be held by commission replacement Te Ohu Kai Moana, whose commissioners are indirectly voted on by iwi and which in turn appoints Aotearoa Fisheries directors.

Eighty per cent of the income shares will be allocated to iwi, and the remaining 20 per cent held by Te Ohu Kai Moana to pay for the governance structure.

Earnings projections for Aotearoa Fisheries would be expected to be around $28 million, with 40 per cent of net profits returned as dividends to iwi, as income shareholders.

The company is likely to hold a stable of brands, maintaining strong labels such as Sealord and Moana Pacific.

Aotearoa Fisheries has already hit snags with some iwi which argue it is either unfair or dislike the company setup, but Jones yesterday blamed the objections on a misunderstanding of the structure.

"I don't think they've appreciated that they will hold the majority of shares in this holding company.

"They seem to believe some non-accountable body will be holding it, which they won't."

The plan is under discussion for seven weeks, before it is referred back to the Government.