KEY POINTS:
Toll NZ has to decide this year whether to buy back rolling stock that was sold and leased back by predecessor Tranz Rail.
In December 1996, Tranz Rail sold and leased back 15 per cent of the company's rolling stock.
It got $131.5 million cash and assumed a lease liability for a period of 12 years. The lease ends on December 19, 2008.
Australian company Toll Holdings took control in 2003 when Tranz Rail was on the brink of collapse.
Business analysts Grant Samuel say that at the end of the lease, Toll NZ has an option to purchase all of the rolling stock for US$25.2m ($36.6m) or return the equipment to the lessor and make a final, once-and-for-all payment of US$9.3m.
Toll NZ has held off big decisions on investment in rolling stock until it agrees access fees to the Government-owned track that give it a satisfactory return on investment.
