Foreign investment in Aotearoa/New Zealand

2008

Overseas Investment Office – Decisions

Commentary and Index prepared by CAFCA

(Note: the OIO decisions quoted here can be viewed here.)

January 2008 decisions

Antipodean acquires Henderson, Auckland land as part of Spotlight purchase; Contact buys Tauhara, Taupo, Landcorp land for geothermal development; Crescent Capital Partners gets approval for failed bid to buy Abano Healthcare; Sogrape of Portugal buys Framingham Wine business from Pernod Ricard; Nobilo buys Waihopai Valley, Marlborough leasehold land for vineyard; Holcim acquires five properties for proposed Weston, Otago cement plant; Summary statistics

February 2008 decisions

Citigroup has approval to acquire Nikko Cordial Corporation for $723m; Macquarie Bank’s Retirement Care (NZ) approved to acquire Qualcare; CVC Asia Pacific funds to acquire 65% and up to 100% of Stella Group; APEREF II may acquire remaining 40% of Great Northern Developments; NZ Poultry Enterprises approved to buy NZ Poultry Holdings (Tegel); Borders gets approval to acquire 40% of A&R Whitcoulls Group; JAM world acquires further 10% of Marlborough vineyard joint venture; Summary statistics

March 2008 decisions

Goldman Sachs JB Were buy further 36% of Vision Senior Living, making 55%…; …with view to development of retirement village at Carlaw Park, Auckland; Woolworths Australia get approval to buy The Warehouse; Ernslaw One acquires Winstone Pulp, 14,000 ha Waimarino Forest, Karioi Forest; Trustpower acquires land for canal for Wairau Valley hydro scheme; Fletchers acquires buffer land for Hunua Quarry, North Auckland; Other land for forestry; Land for wine; Other rural land sales; Summary statistics

April 2008 decisions

Sale of 40% of Auckland International Airport to Canada Pension Fund refused; Retrospective approval: Tourism Holdings buys leasehold from Hamilton City…; …and another leasehold for same Hamilton development; EnviroWaste buying remainder of Manawatu Waste, to “increase market power”; Valad buys Carters depot, Tauranga, from Carter Holt Harvey for lease back…; …and 55 ha. in Northland from CHH for industrial park development; Trustpower buys Stillwater, Westland leasehold for Arnold Valley Hydro Scheme Summary statistics

May 2008 decisions

Controversial Russian purchase of controlling interest in New Zealand Dairies; Toll buys United Carriers group of road freight companies; AMP buys remaining half share of three Auckland shopping centres for $414m; …ANZ’s UCG Group buys Rhapsody rest home and hospital, New Plymouth…; …Macquarie’s ElderCare buys three retirement villages in Invercargill…; …and Macquarie’s Retirement Care (NZ) buys Nelson land to expand aged care; Valad Property Group with Kennards of Australia expands self-storage facilities; New Zealand Crane Group buys Porirua land for depot; Australian buys Te Hau Station and Moanui Station, Gisborne; Tiong family’s Oregon Nurseries expands into neighbouring Oamaru nursery; Other rural land sales; Summary statistics

June 2008 decisions

Origin Energy buys Swift Energy’s assets for $110m, including TAWN gas fields; US “Grave Dancer” may take 100% of Sanctuary Residences retirement villages ASB sets up ASB Cash Fund; Quadrant Private Equity increases holding in Seniors Money; Brookfield Multiplex Developments buys Takapuna land for development; Trustpower buys 81 hectares in Marlborough for hydro scheme; Black family change ownership of Amalgamated Holdings forestry company; Holcim buys North Otago land after dumping on neighbour; Negociants acquires further 14 ha. vineyard at Renwick, Marlborough; Fletcher Concrete swaps sensitive Wiri land with 14 hectares of Crown land; Tourism Holdings to lease public land at Waitomo Caves; Summary statistics

July 2008 decisions

Cheung Kong of Hong Kong buys Vector’s Wellington electricity network; Hewlett-Packard buys EDS; Rubicon allowed to acquire remainder of Tenon (former Fletcher Forests); Porsche takes over Volkswagen; Eureka Funds of Australia buys Crowne Plaza Hotel, Christchurch…; …and Christchurch Hotels may buy Intercontinental’s share of Premier Hotels; Kelly Tarlton’s Underwater World sold to Village Roadshow; US company buys Christchurch land for well for water export business; ING (NZ) to lease 5 floors of St Laurence House, Quay St, Auckland; Kerikeri decision largely suppressed; English Vietnam-based banker buys 14,600 ha. Ryton Station at Lake Coleridge; Contact Energy buys 35 ha. of Taupo land from Landcorp for cooling water; Grandy Lake Forest of Germany buys Hawkes Bay land for forestry; Nobilo partnership acquires partner’s 84 ha. to expand Marlborough vineyards; US investors approved to swap debt for 49% of Mondillo Vineyards, Otago; Australians buy lifestyle property at Lake Hawea; Summary statistics

August 2008 decisions

Andersons Bay Dunedin decision largely suppressed; CSR to buy Ross Roofing; Dixie Cummings of Australia expands into Aotearoa with Auckland joint venture; ABN Amro buys land for development from McConnell Property; Approval for failed British Gas bid for Origin Energy; UEM Group Berhad restructuring its Opus Group subsidiaries; Pernod Ricard buys 27 ha. of leasehold to expand its vineyards in Marlborough; Spanish buyer for 300 ha. Springs Junction beef farm; Summary statistics

September 2008 decisions

Souter takes over Howick and Eastern Buses Ltd; Citigroup sells Hirequip Ltd to Tasman Capital…; …and FleetPartners to three private equity corporations; Private equity purchase of business of BJ Ball, major paper wholesaler; PEP increases Tegel Foods holding to 45% to help pay for Brinks acquisition; US company buys Queenstown land for Otago Polytechnic; Allied Concrete leases Isaac Conservation Park land for concrete plant; New Zealand Steel buys more farm land for green belt around its steel mill; Land for forestry; Land for wine; Other rural land sales; Summary statistics

October 2008 decisions

Note; Application to buy Taihape land by U.K. pension fund refused; Castle Harlan buy Alleasing Trust for $122 million from Allco; Private equity corporation PEP buys further shares and notes of A&R Whitcoulls; BHP gets approval for failed takeover of Rio Tinto; ASB Group Investments Ltd sets up new unit trust for over $100 million; Little information released on Trilogy purchase of NZ Communications shares; Middle East company buys 50% of Great Northern Developments from AMP; PF Olsen for Australian fund buys 218 hectares in Ngatapa, Gisborne; Other land for forestry; Land for wine; Contact Energy acquires 45 hectares of Taupo land from Landcorp Farming; Rausing family (Ingleby Company) buys more land at Tokomaru Bay, East Cape; Other rural land sales; Summary statistics

November 2008 decisions

U.K. Government gets approval to acquire assets of Royal Bank of Scotland; News Corporation renews approval to acquire 100% of Sky Network Television; Red Earth Holdings gets approval to acquire all of PBL Media for $122 million; Ryton Station owner buys 10,655 ha. Glenthorne Station, Lake Coleridge; Contact Energy buys Pukekawa land for transmission line for new wind farm; Other rural land sales; Summary statistics

December 2008 decisions

Hong Kong application to take over New Zealand Steel Mining Limited refused; Lend Lease Corporation takes over Babcock and Brown’s aged care operation; Onesteel may take full ownership of Steel and Tube Holdings (but didn’t); New Zealand Dairies of Russia buys a further 4 ha. at Waimate, Canterbury; Tenon buys 27 ha. of land at Matatoki, Coromandel for $1; Kodansha of Japan buys 894 ha. Cotton Forest and Drumfern Forest, Southland; Channel Islands company acquires Nau Mai on 6 hectares near Queenstown; Approval for 300 ha. purchase at Little River, Banks Peninsula by US investor; Canterbury decision largely suppressed; Summary statistics

Numbers of deleted or released decisions before appeal

	Jan 2008	Feb 2008	Mar 2008	Apr 2008	May 2008	Jun 2008	Jul 2008	Aug 2008	Sep 2008	Oct 2008	Nov 2008	Dec 2008	Total 2008
Deletions	6	2	2	2	3	3	1	2	5	6	1	3	36
Applications Refused	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	4
Decisions released	10	7	11	9	15	11	16	8	15	17	6	9	134

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Overseas Investment Office – Decisions 2008