Dividend talk premature says ports chief

By PAM GRAHAM

Ports of Auckland is to consider its own investment plans before letting shareholders know if money from marina sales announced yesterday will be passed on to them.

"At any point of time a business has always got dreams and schemes," chief executive Geoff Vazey said.

The port's 80 per cent shareholder, Infrastructure Auckland, said anticipated dividend payments from the $54 million sale of Westhaven and Hobson West marinas would benefit transport and stormwater infrastructure in Auckland.

But Vazey said no decision had been made on a special dividend. The port would take two months to consider it as part of an annual planning and budget cycle.

"Over the next two months we will look at our forward cash demands, what our strategies are, what we may think of investing in, and through that process we will decide what we will do with the money.

"Obviously the options are pay out a special dividend, or not pay out a special dividend.

"We haven't made that decision yet." A capital return has been widely anticipated but Vazey said the port had only said that it was one of the possibilities.

The port was developing a 10ha site at Wiri as an inland port and that was the type of thing it had to consider in strategy planning.

Ports around the world are moving containers to inland sites to increase port capacity.

Sometimes rail is used to relieve congestion on roads or containers are moved at night to increase the use of trucks.

Commentators have also been watching to see how the port, as a listed company majority owned by a local body, would treat minority shareholders in the highly political marina sale.

Westhaven was sold to the Government for $52 million with no conditions attached and Hobson West was sold for $2 million, conditional on Cabinet approval on Monday.

Vazey said the Government's bid was the highest. There were seven other bids, including one from Auckland City and one from a trust associated with marina users.

Vazey said many of the others were difficult to identify but one was from an Australian leisure investment fund and another looked like it had a foreign component.