KEY POINTS:
As foreign investors circle round its assets in eager anticipation, Auckland International Airport Ltd has decided to adopt a new logo.
The logo, a silver A on a black background with a koru through the middle in the style of art by Gordon Walters, was used for the first time on the cover of the company's annual report.
Images of a ponga fern and feathers from native birds grace the inside pages of the report that extols the adoption of a New Zealand personality by "New Zealand's airport".
Chairman John Maasland said the company has adopted a new vision of "representing our country, and new core values of being outstanding, uniquely Kiwi and welcoming".
This was first signalled when the annual result was announced in August and the company said it would adopt the name Auckland Airport in preference to Auckland International Airport or AIAL.
The annual report comes out weeks after the board recommended a bid by Dubai Aersopace Enterprise to take control of the company in the absence of a better offer. That bid floundered in the face of public and council shareholder opposition to foreign control.
The airport is now being courted by one of Canada's biggest superannuation funds.
The company listed on the New Zealand stock exchange when the government sold its 51.6 per cent stake in 1998 and no controls were put in then to limit the level of foreign ownership.
The 2007 annual report also reveals that the company has put $10.8 million aside to cover the cost of a "phantom" option plan to reward senior executives if the company's share price outperforms the sharemarket over a three to six-year period.
Separately independent non-executive director Wayne Boyd was paid a retirement benefit of $270,000 when he retired after the 2006 annual meeting and was paid total fees of $314,589.
A rundown of directors fees shows Tony Frankham received $128,869, John Maasland $125,479, Michael Smith $119,251, Keith Turner $86,993 and Joan Withers $92,106.
The remuneration of chief executive Don Huse was $902,186.
- NZPA
