By DANIEL RIORDAN
Defunct blue mailbox company National Mail is struggling to find a buyer for its postal network, and has given itself until March 31 and its annual meeting before it tries to offload its assets separately.
Chairman Rick Flower said several parties had shown an interest in the whole company but none had so far followed up with any serious intent.
He said some of the assets were easily saleable but the company was still trying to sell its whole network, which includes about 650 blue mailboxes in Auckland and Wellington.
"We would like to sell it as one package, but if that doesn't happen we'll have to sell the bits and pieces off."
Mr Flower said the company's major asset was its mail-sorting Machine, identical to the machines Australian Post uses.
The company lost $7.55 million in the year to September 30. When it raised $14 million in its March float and stock exchange listing it forecast a loss of $5.5 million.
National Mail had cash reserves of $7.2 million at its September 30 balance date, but continued trading losses and the costs of closing the business, including redundancy payouts to its 200 workers, are understood to have reduced that amount to a figure reflected in its share price of 12c. With 27,613,504 shares on issue, that suggests cash reserves of about $3.3 million.
The company's annual report, issued yesterday, adds little to the comments directors made when they announced the closure in December, and their remarks when the accounts were issued just before Christmas.
Directors say only that they are considering the best course of action and expect to give more information to shareholders next month.
Chief executive Antony Fowler earned total remuneration of $209,848 for the year - the only executive to earn more than $100,000.
The biggest of the company's 408 shareholders at January 22 were founder and director Paul Meier, with 43 per cent, the float's lead manager, Ellis Capital (10 per cent), Mr Fowler (7.5 per cent) and fund manager Armstrong Jones (6 per cent).
The company's largely deserted head office in Mt Wellington is on the market. In front of the office is a lonely, oversized blue mailbox - probably the only one in the country with an open slot after the company blocked the mouths of all the others with wooden planks as required by law.
National Mail keen to sort out buyer
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