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Auckland Airport's overseas suitor remains confident of buying a majority stake in New Zealand's main gateway despite political opposition to selling strategic public assets.
Dubai Aerospace Enterprise yesterday broke its silence on controversial comments made at the weekend by Trade Minister Phil Goff by saying it believed its $2.6 billion purchase offer would ultimately receive a fair hearing.
"I'm absolutely confident there will be fair play," DAE airports chief executive Kjeld Binger told the Herald from Mexico, where he is honeymooning.
Asked the basis for his confidence, he said: "I happen to be a naive Dane and naive Danes happen to believe in fairness."
Mr Binger did not respond directly to Mr Goff's statement that the Government supported the majority of Aucklanders who wanted their airport shares kept in public ownership, saying only that everyone was entitled to free expression.
His company preferred to highlight the value it was convinced its offer would provide to the airport's shareholders, including Auckland and Manukau cities with their combined stake of 22.8 per cent, and New Zealand as a whole.
"At the end of the day, we should focus still on the fact that we are making a fantastic offer for everyone and that's what we hope everyone else will focus on," Mr Binger said.
"What we want to do is operate Auckland International as a destination airport, taking into consideration the development of tourism in New Zealand."
Mr Binger said Air New Zealand had nothing to fear from his company's common ownership through the Dubai Government with the Emirates airline, insisting it would not be in its interests to show any favouritism.
He said his company had a strong track record of providing airlines with the best airport services "at very, very competitive rates in the end".
Neither would DAE have anything to gain by diluting its investment by turning Auckland into a feeder for large Australian airports, a hypothetical possibility raised by Prime Minister Helen Clark in emphasising a need to guard its strategic value to New Zealand.
She and Mr Goff have been at pains to explain that his comments to Auckland's Labour-leaning City Vision political team referred only to the desirability of retaining the 22.8 per cent community stake in the airport and would not prejudice a statutory process for considering overseas investment applications.
Nevertheless, the airport's share price plunged more than 6 per cent from $3.29c to $3.08c after his intervention, before recovering to $3.17c by late yesterday.
