Performance figures will help taxpayers, says SOE minister

State Owned Enterprises Minister Simon Power. Photo / Mark Mitchell

The Government has given State Owned Enterprises a set of 11 financial performance measures they will need to include in future Statements of Corporate Intent.

A spokesman for SOE Minister Simon Power said the new measures were a tool to give the owners of SOEs - taxpayers - a clear idea of how the companies were performing.

Through the new measures, the performance of a single SOE could eventually be compared year-on-year, as well as with other SOEs and NZX-listed firms, he said.

"Eventually there will be a history and people will be able to plot how [an SOE] did this year compared with one, two, three or four years ago."

The spokesman said taxpayers would find understanding the performance of SOEs easier after the new system came into play.

The financial measures the government-owned firms will be required to report on include total shareholder returns, returns on equity, solvency and operating margins.

Power said the Government had made a commitment to improve the transparency and accountability of SOEs.

"These companies represent a $25 billion investment on behalf of the taxpayer, and shareholding ministers have a duty to ensure that this investment delivers an appropriate return ... this is another step towards providing taxpayers with the tools to assess how their investment portfolio is performing," Power said.

New Zealand's 20 SOEs - which include Meridian Energy, Mighty River Power and Solid Energy, Landcorp Farming and New Zealand Post - are 100 per cent government-owned but operate as commercial businesses.