Selling State Assets, Unlearned Lessons



Bill Rosenberg was appointed Economist and Director of Policy at the CTU in May 2009. He holds a B.Com in Economics, a BSc in Mathematics and a PhD in Mathematical Psychology. Bill was previously Deputy Director, University Centre for Teaching and Learning at the University of Canterbury, a Member of the Institute of Directors, a Commissioner on TEC, and was a member of the Regional Land Transport Committee of Environment Canterbury.

His history lesson reproduced here is one worth remembering:

The New Zealand Rail sale in 1993 was organised by Faye Richwhite who then proceeded to benefit from it hugely by taking a substantial shareholding – a conflict of interest fit for a post-Soviet state. The main shareholders of the purchaser, TranzRail, were Faye Richwhite, Berkshire Fund and Wisconsin Central of the US, and Alex van Heeren. They bought a company which had been freed of debt by a $1.6 billion injection by the government. The price was $328 million, of which they paid only $107 million and borrowed the rest. According to Brian Gaynor they “were responsible for stripping out $220.9 million of equity in 1993 and $100 million in 1995” . By the time they had sold out, they had made total profits of $370 million, mainly tax free because of the lack of capital gains tax, and darkened by accusations of insider trading. 


Under Wisconsin’s management the safety record was appalling (by 2000, fatal accidents for employees were eight times the national average) and reinvestment and maintenance were abysmal, leaving the operation in a crippled state. They sold out to Toll of Australia who similarly failed to maintain the system, and who then sold it back to the government in two tranches for a total of over $700 million plus ongoing costs to the government of several hundred million dollars to repair the rail network and replace the antiquated rolling stock. It is difficult to estimate the total costs to the country, but the total cost to the government will be almost $4 billion , greatly magnified by the neglect of the private owners. 

The previous government has been accused of paying too much for the rail company, and they probably did, but that was just one element of the huge financial and opportunity losses to the people of New Zealand as a result of the privatisation that were evident well before the renationalisation.

Comments

Kylie said…
Totally off subject but have been awaiting post on today's 'under duress' article. Have you had the hard word put on you? When do you have to cease commenting and blogging under Electoral Act?
Dave Kennedy said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
Dave Kennedy said…
Hi Kylie, schools have decided that holding out against the enforced legal requirements of including National Standards in their charters would result in school communities and children suffering beyond what we are comfortable with. Our ethical consciences are more focussed on the children in our care than is this mercenary government. This is no backdown, however, we are just shifting the focus to the next battle which will be the miss use of the flawed data that will be generated from the standards.

As for my blogging, this is exempt from the Electoral Act as regards advertising. I will continue commenting!
Kylie said…
That's interesting the guy on news the other day was saying to turn off comments but I'm thankful you don't have to

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