State-owned enterprises of New Zealand
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State-owned enterprises (SOEs) in New Zealand are registered companies listed under Schedules 1 and 2 of the State-Owned Enterprises Act 1986. Most SOEs are former government departments or agencies that were corporatised.
Many other government-owned companies and statutory trading organisations are referred to informally as "state-owned enterprises" although they are not SOEs in the strictest sense. These are also listed here.
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[edit] Function
The function of SOEs is to operate successfully as a business, as profitable as those not owned by the Crown. The section of the Act defining this is usually interpreted as meaning that SOEs are expected to ready themselves for privatisation, though this is not always the case.
Two Ministers of the Crown act as the shareholding ministers in the company. In the case of SOEs these are usually the Minister of State-Owned Enterprises and the Minister responsible for the particular company.
[edit] Crown Company Monitoring Advisory Unit
The Crown is assisted in the running of SOEs and other Crown-owned companies by the Crown Company Monitoring Advisory Unit (CCMAU - pronounced "see-see-maow") in The Treasury.
[edit] List of current state-owned enterprises
Current state-owned enterprises include:
- New Zealand Post Limited
- Meteorological Service of New Zealand Limited (MetService)
- Airways New Zealand (air traffic control and air navigation providers)
- Transpower New Zealand Limited
- Kordia (formerly Broadcast Communications Limited or BCL)
- Mighty River Power Limited
- Meridian Energy Limited
- Genesis Power Limited
- Landcorp
- Learning Media Limited
- ONTRACK (trading name of the New Zealand Railways Corporation)
[edit] Former state-owned enterprises
Former state-owned enterprises come in three forms - those removed from the Schedules of the Act and made Crown entities, those removed and not privatised, and those removed and privatised. Well-known SOEs that became Crown entity companies include broadcasting companies Television New Zealand Limited (TVNZ) and Radio New Zealand Limited (RNZ).
[edit] Privatised state-owned enterprises
Privatised state-owned enterprises include:
- Telecom Corporation of New Zealand Limited - later unbundled between 2006-2008
- Petrocorp - sold to Fletcher Energy (now part of Royal Dutch Shell)
- State Insurance Office
- Health Computing Service
- DFC New Zealand Limited - went bankrupt in 1989 and later liquidated
- Post Office Bank Limited (Postbank) - sold to ANZ
- New Zealand Shipping Corporation - sold to P&O
- New Zealand Steel Limited - purchased by BHP
- Air New Zealand Limited (although the government later bought a controlling share in the company in 2001)
- Rural Banking and Finance Corporation - purchased by the National Bank of New Zealand)
- Government Printing Office - now GP Print
- National Film Unit - purchased by Peter Jackson and renamed Park Road Post
- Tourist Hotel Corporation of New Zealand Limited
- Export Guarantee Office
- Government Supply Brokerage Corporation (NZ) Limited
- Bank of New Zealand (BNZ)
- New Zealand Rail Limited (The rail operations of the Railways Corporation) - later renationalised by central government
- GCS Limited - formerly Government Computing Services, purchased by EDS New Zealand
- Terralink International
Source: The New Zealand Treasury
[edit] Shell state-owned enterprises
Some SOEs, such as ECNZ, are effectively small SOEs or shell companies. Companies that are still SOEs but are now shell companies, having had most of their assets privatised, include:
- Works and Development Services Corporation New Zealand Ltd which remained in state ownership after the sale of Works Civil Construction Ltd to Downer and Company Ltd.
[edit] Former, non-SOE state-owned corporations
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- State Insurance Corporation
- Tourist Hotel Corporation
- Government Life Insurance Corporation - later renamed Tower Insurance
- National Airways Corporation - merged with Air New Zealand in 1980
[edit] Other Crown-owned companies
Other, non-SOE Crown-owned companies are the Crown entity companies. These are the Crown Research Institutes (CRIs), the broadcasting companies Television New Zealand Limited (TVNZ) and Radio New Zealand Limited (RNZ), and the New Zealand Venture Investment Fund Limited.
The Crown also has a majority stake in Air New Zealand Limited.
[edit] See also
- State sector organisations in New Zealand (lists SOEs and Crown entities)
