Tauranga pushing for port merger with Auckland

The Port of Tauranga has sent a proposal to the Government outlining the economic benefits of a potential merger with Ports of Auckland.

Mark Cairns, chief executive of the Tauranga company, told today's Dominion Post he had a "reasonable expectation" that he would get an indication within a month of whether the Government would support the merger.

There were three possible ways of getting the merger approved. The first was to go through the Commerce Commission and hope it took into account "the significant public-good benefits", Mr Cairns said.

The second route was also through the commission but accompanied by a policy statement from the Government supporting the merger, which the commission would be required to take into account, Mr Cairns said.

The third option would be to bypass the commission altogether and get the Government to pass legislation enabling the merger.

The proposal sent to the Government last week did not include a detailed plan of how the merger would be structured, Mr Cairns said.

A spokesman for Finance Minister Michael Cullen said it was too early to comment on whether the Government would support the proposal and that he was not sure how long it would take the Government to give the ports an indication of whether the merger was a goer or not.

The Tauranga and Auckland port companies announced three weeks ago they were in talks about ways to work together, including the possibility of a merger of their operations.

- NZPA