Each council has placed its shareholdings into their own holdings company – Horizons into MWRC Holdings Ltd, and Greater Wellington into WRC Holdings Ltd – both of which are 100% owned by their respective councils. Horizons receives a return by way of annual dividend from MWRC Holdings. MWRC Holdings’ primary role is to hold and manage Horizons’ existing investments, which currently includes a range of investment properties, a share portfolio and the CentrePort Ltd shareholding.
CentrePort is a commercial organisation run by an independent board of directors. The port provides a commercial return to MWRC Holdings by way of dividends. The port has also grown in value. When CentrePort was vested with us and Greater Wellington in 1989, its net asset value was approximately $54M (our 23.08% share had a net asset value of $12.5M). From 2015 (Figure 1) the net asset value of CentrePort has grown from $208M to $502M.
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The port provides a range of services, including bulk trade, fuel imports and providing a hub for the Cook Strait ferry services. In 2023/24, it generated gross revenue of $106.2 million and an underlying net profit after tax of $14.7m, paying out $7m in dividends (Figure 2) to its shareholders during the year, with Horizons’ share being $1.6m. More information about CentrePort is available at www.centreport.co.nz.
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Greater Wellington Regional Council, while consulting its community on its 2024-34 Long Term Plan, asked if they should become the 100% shareholder of CentrePort Limited if the remaining shares became available for purchase. In total, 71% of the 301 respondents who answered that question said Greater Wellington should become the 100% shareholder.
We did not consult directly during our 2024-34 Long-Term Plan process about selling our CentrePort shareholding. However, we did indicate we were open to investigating options to sell the shares. We are proposing doing further investigations into possible options for selling our shareholding, then proceeding with a sale to a potential suitable buyer (either publicly or privately owned) if we can get favourable outcomes for ratepayers compared to retaining the shareholding, and investing the proceeds into a managed fund. If a sale was to proceed, MWRC Holdings would continue to be responsible for Horizons’ investment, but through the managed fund rather than CentrePort shares. However, as the shareholder, Horizons would make any decision about future use of those funds.
Various pieces of legislation require us to consult on selling an asset of this nature. One of those pieces of legislation, the Local Government Act, defines any port shareholdings owned by a council as being a “strategic asset”. We must consult before selling any asset defined in that act as a strategic asset.
The proposed sale of our CentrePort shareholding and reinvestment in a managed fund will only impact Horizons Regional Council by way of the dividend received from MWRC Holdings. We have assumed the dividend will remain at least the same as we currently expect to get each year.
The information outlined here should be read in conjunction with the supporting information, all of which can be found on the homepage of this online consultation space and at our service centres. There is also a lot more work to take place between now and any potential sale of the port shareholding, so some information may not yet be available.
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The sale of one asset and reinvestment of the proceeds into a different asset comes with pros and cons. Our CentrePort shareholding has a history of providing regular annual dividends, the capital value of the port has grown over time, and we could possibly see both dividends and the capital value increase in years to come. The port could also be seen as a strategic asset. However, divesting from the port may reduce potential exposure to the risks associated with the port and logistics industries.
Selling our CentrePort shareholding and investing in a managed fund would give us more flexibility and diversification in our asset portfolio. The investment would be spread across multiple industries to ensure any negative impact in one area did not impact the entire fund. Similarly, the investment would be spread across several global markets so any geographical impacts on the fund are isolated. While CentrePort has a large capital value, our shareholding in the port is a relatively illiquid asset – it is a hard asset to sell quickly without affecting its value. A managed fund provides easier access to capital, as shares can be acquired or divested in a reasonably short space of time, allowing both positive and negative changes in the markets to be responded to. It would also give the ability to structure investments in a way which could provide steady income and growth over time, with the ability to change the split between return and growth.
We currently use the dividends from the port to offset rates in accordance with our Revenue and Financing Policy. Specifically, 20% of investment revenue is used to offset the Uniform Annual General Charge and 80% to offset the General Rate. Selling the CentrePort shareholding and investing the proceeds into a managed fund could provide a greater return than if we kept the port shareholding. That return could then be used to offset rates or cover the costs of additional work. If the return from a managed fund was higher than the return from the port, we could have more money to offset rates, resulting in less pressure on individual rates bills.
Like many councils across the country, we are experiencing growing demand for increased levels of service, rising costs, and heightened climatic risk. There are some key considerations guiding our decision making when it comes to a potential CentrePort shareholding sale:
- Prudent stewardship of investments.
- Best benefit for the region, both now and into the future.
- Managing risk.
Careful financial management flows on to every household and resident in the Horizons Region. Reviewing our asset ownership – in this case, our ownership of the port shares – is critical to ensure we can continue working towards our vision of the Horizons Region being a place where people thrive. We also acknowledge there is more to the CentrePort shareholding than just its financial value – this is why we would not sell unless our investigations show a sale would produce more favourable outcomes than retaining the shareholding.
Moving towards possibly selling the CentrePort shareholding would not be a fast process. It would take many months to do the work required before selling. We would engage independent experts and get legal and financial advice to ensure we deliver the best outcome possible for ratepayers. Appropriate due diligence will be taken throughout.
If Council decides to advance with investigations, we will work through the process of attaining the value of the port shareholding for sale, how the shareholding could be packaged for sale, and how it would be marketed. Work would also need to be done to determine who it could be sold to.
If the shareholding was sold, we would transfer the funds into the managed fund Council determines is most appropriate to invest in.
The proceeds from any sale of the port shareholding would be reinvested into a managed fund in the first instance. Council, as the shareholder of MWRC Holdings, could decide in the future to invest those proceeds elsewhere in the long term in line with Horizons’ Investment Policy.
The forecasting assumptions including forecast investment returns and the value of sale proceeds are based on information available at the time this document was prepared. We have based our forecast investment returns assumptions on the Forsyth Barr managed fund we have already invested in, a copy of which is provided in the supporting information. This fund is a listed share portfolio made up of New Zealand and international shares, and across a mix of different industries. Figure 3 is a breakdown of our current portfolio managed by Forsyth Barr showing the various asset classes currently held. A managed fund may provide more financial return in the future than our CentrePort shareholding. Our initial assumption is that selling our port shareholding for at least its carrying value and investing the proceeds into a managed fund will give us at least the same amount of financial return as what we currently get from the port. This would be achieved by balancing the investment between shares that provide growth in value, versus shares that provide interest and dividend returns on an annual basis.
If there was a sustained downturn in investment returns, Council may have to consider options such as reducing services, increasing rates or selling other assets. Diversifying our investments reduces the overall risk of a sustained downturn. As with most investment decisions, past performance (Figure 4) is no guarantee of future performance.
The timeline for selling shares – if that was the outcome – would be dependent on further analysis, market fluctuations and changing economic conditions to ensure the best possible result.
Have your say
Fill out the submission form to have your say on our 2025-26 Annual Plan and 2024-34 Long-term Plan amendment by 5pm Thursday 1 May.
