Friday, November 5, 2010

the policy made me do it

To me Ngāi Tahu Property selling 18,250 hectares of rural land leased to forestry companies located in the lowland Canterbury foothills is just wrong. The diversification argument is disingenous because this is LAND and this land is generating over 1M in rental income - that is low risk. Press Release
"NTP Chief Executive Tony Sewell says the Ngāi Tahu’s rural investment portfolio currently represents 1/6 of the Tribes commercial asset base. "Quite simply we are looking to diversify the overall portfolio in line with the Tribes investment policy.
Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu Kaiwhakahaere Mark Solomon says the iwi has a number of policies in place that guide the decision making of those that lead its commercial entities, including the Group Investment Policy Framework, finalised this year, which encourages Ngāi Tahu Holdings Corporation and the subsidiaries to diversify the investment portfolio. "All our subsidiaries will, at times, have to make decisions to sell assets in order to reinvest in a manner that is consistent with our Investment Policy. We see diversification as being essential to secure the tribe’s future financial success."
I think we make a mistake when we just consider land as a commodity that generates profit. I am not happy with the blame being placed on the policy - who signed off the policy? The iwi decides the policy, in line with the values of the members of the iwi. I am not sure where the value of 'selling land' sits but it'll be well down the list i'd guess.

I have checked out the annual report and it says that the Group Investment Policy Framework is designed to get higher returns and provide liquidity and they will achieve that by "moving unproductive assets". The goal is to build net assets from 500M to 1B by 2015 - that's about 48 months away.

2 comments:

Zia Wolf-Sun said...

Hi Marty...not exactly a comment in the true sense of the word I guess but today is the 1st day Blogger has condescended to allow me to view my followers widget thingy or whatever it's called here. So now I know you kindly appeared there ;) just dropping in to say hi and thank you! Not sure how long you've been gracing my none-viewable widget thingy but hopefully not too long or you must think I'm very ignorant! Well...very cool site you have here :) I have officially only been here a month or so tho I think I opened the account back in July (ish) so any advice and suggestions/constructive critisism gratefully received. You look like you know what you're doing unlike me!! :)

Marty Mars said...

Kia ora Zia

I often look at followers and their blogs and their followers and links and it is amazing where i can end up - coming across blogs like yours which are interesting. It's about connection for me. All the best for your blogging - I don't have any advice other than trust yourself and be yourself. Kia kaha.