Judge gets sides in Vector row talking

By RICHARD INDER

A judge mediating in a bitter dispute over a proposal to privatise the Auckland power lines company Vector appears to have got the two factions talking.

The Auckland Energy Consumer Trust met at the weekend.

Chairman Warren Kyd would not reveal the outcome, saying it was commercially confidential and subject to a court suppression order.

But Kyd, who supports privatising Vector, said all trustees attended and the meeting was "amiable".

This is in stark contrast to the trustees' behaviour last week, when pro and anti-privatisation factions traded blows in the High Court.

Justice Helen Winkelmann's decision, delivered late on Friday night, is expected to remain confidential until this afternoon.

She was brought into the fray after accusations that those in the anti-privatisation faction had breached their duties as trustees.

At the heart of the dispute is a plan for Vector to buy another energy company, thought to be gas pipelines group NGC.

If the offer were made, Vector would offer a portion of its shares to the public, raising about $700 million.

This would reduce the Auckland Energy Consumer Trust's Vector holding to 75 per cent.

Kyd, supported by trustee Karen Sherry, won the upper hand in the scrap last week by blocking anti-privatisation trustee John Collinge from voting on the proposal.

Backed by the High Court, Kyd ruled Collinge could not vote because his family's ownership of $200,000 of Vector bonds was a "material interest" in the transaction.

This split the trust equally, but may have cleared the way for privatisation, as Kyd could use his chairman's casting vote in favour of the plan.