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Manukau City expects more bids for Auckland Airport shares before consulting residents next month on an overseas takeover offer.
Officials expect to have consultation documents ready for councillors' approval by the end of this month, despite strong political opposition in Manukau to selling any of the city's 10.05 per cent stake in the airport.
The documents will outline Dubai Aerospace Enterprise's $2.6 billion bid for a majority of the airport, and any other offers the city believes may emerge in the meantime.
Although any final decision will be left until after the October local body elections, to a new council and mayor, three leading contenders to replace Sir Barry Curtis in the top job have indicated opposition to selling Manukau's shares.
Mayoral candidate Len Brown, who came a close second to Sir Barry in the previous elections, says there is no way Manukau residents would allow their shares to be sold overseas. Rival contenders Arthur Anae and Dick Quax have also indicated their opposition.
But speculation is mounting that locally owned infrastructure company Infratil and the New Zealand Superannuation Fund, which last week declared combined holdings of 6.2 per cent in the airport, may form part of some other bid.
They could team up with a larger buyer, which may even include Dubai, or form a bloc of shares with the 22.8 per cent community stake held by the Manukau and Auckland City Councils to extract a superior offer.
Dubai, which needs 75 per cent shareholder approval for its bid to succeed, says it is keen to accommodate a request from Infratil chief executive Lloyd Morrison for an early meeting.
Sir Barry, a strong defender of his council's shares who intends retiring in October, criticised Auckland City last month for starting a consultation round on the future of its 12.75 per cent airport stake before receiving any firm bid.
He said then that Auckland ratepayers were being denied relevant information needed to determine the fate of their shares, and that the Manukau council would wait for a report from its advisers examining specific offers.
There would be no requirement to consult the public unless his council received a proposal in which it saw potential merit, he said.
Auckland City began consulting its residents 10 days before Dubai's bid emerged on July 23, and received 611 submissions by a deadline of last week. It said a wide range of opinions had emerged from the submissions, which staff had yet to analyse in depth.
"While at first glance there is opposition to selling, there is also some interest in restructuring our shareholding if this is in the best interests of residents and ratepayers," the city council said.
Auckland councillors will hear oral submissions on August 27 before deciding on September 3 whether to amend their 10-year budget to allow the city's shareholding to be restructured or transferred.
Sir Barry said on Friday that his council would begin consultations next month on options available to it.
