So why do we own a mining company?
Stuff reports: The depth of Solid Energy’s financial woes have been laid bare with the Government confirming the company is in talks with bankers over its debt levels. The Solid Energy board was...
View ArticleEspiner on Solid Energy
Colin Espiner writes: I admit I’m no expert, but it looks to me as if taxpayers lose either way under our current SOE model. We either pay through the nose for our power with little or no government...
View Article“Alternative Developments”
Stuff reports: A pre-asset-sale study in 2011 for the Government had highlighted over-optimistic coal price assumptions and questionable alternative fuels investments, which led ultimately to changes...
View ArticleLabour on Solid Energy
It seems to me that there were two major factors that led to the problems at Solid Energy. One was the fall in global coal prices, and the other was the borrowing to fund alternative energy projects...
View ArticleKey was wrong – they wanted $27b not $1b
The Herald reports: Prime Minister John Key this morning released documents detailing Solid Energy’s ambitious expansion plans which would have required capital investment of $2-3 billion a year until...
View ArticleSolid Energy
Some useful analysis by Chalkie at Business Day: Meanwhile, in April 2009, Finance Minister Bill English and then SOE minister Simon Power summoned SOE bosses to a meeting and told them to sharpen up....
View ArticleSolid Energy documents
Treasury has just released a mound of documents on Solid Energy. There’s over 100 documents so I’m not going to try and read them all. I am looking at some around the proposed Natural Resources Ltd. if...
View ArticleSolid Energy and $1 billion
The Herald reports: Newly released papers raise fresh questions over Prime Minister John Key’s claim that Solid Energy asked for $1 billion of taxpayers’ money to fund its transformation into a massive...
View ArticleThe Solid energy failure
Adam Bennett at NZ Herald reports: Solid Energy withheld financial information from Treasury when challenged on its business plans in what an independent report says was a pattern of disrespect the...
View ArticleThe Solid Energy package
Adam Bennett at NZ Herald reports: The Government has loaned stricken state owned coal miner Solid Energy $100 million and extended a further $30 million standby facility as part of a restructuring...
View ArticleThe pitfalls of public ownership
The Herald editorial: The Green Party has called the Government’s bail-out of Solid Energy “privatisation by stealth”. Would that it were so. The state coal company will cost the taxpayer $155 million...
View ArticleRutherford exposes Greens financial illiteracy
Hamish Rutherford (a former business journalist) writes at Stuff: With co-leader and economic spokesman Russel Norman overseas this week, it fell on the shoulders of Green Party energy spokesman Gareth...
View ArticleWhy the state should not own commercial companies
Stuff reports: Finance Minister Bill English says he still doesn’t know if Solid Energy is viable, raising the prospect of the company collapsing. The Christchurch-based coalminer is negotiating with a...
View ArticleFormer Solid Energy Chair thinks it can’t be saved
Stuff reported: The chairwoman of Solid Energy quit the state owned mining company because she disagreed with Bill English that the company could be saved, an email shows. Pip Dunphy resigned from the...
View ArticleNo more bail outs for Solid Energy I hope
Stuff reports: The Government is reluctant to purchase Stockton mine to protect the jobs of nearly 250 workers, but a decision on its fate is drawing near, says Prime Minister John Key. An announcement...
View ArticleSolid Energy in voluntary administration
The Herald reports: The board of state owned coal company Solid Energy has put the company into temporary voluntary administration, the Government has just announced. Solid Energy chief executive Dan...
View ArticleWill Labour oppose these assets being sold?
Stuff reports: A full independent report of Solid Energy’s assets has been unveiled to creditors, supporting plans to sell down the company’s assets over the next few years. The beleaguered...
View ArticleBetter to sell assets before they go bust
The Herald reports: Solid Energy New Zealand’s creditors will get as much as 55 cents in the dollar after the failed state-owned enterprise’s mines were sold to three parties, including a tie-up...
View ArticleMoving on
Radio NZ reports: Families furious with Solid Energy’s decision to proceed with plans to permanently seal the Pike River Mine are looking at legal action. Saturday was the sixth anniversary of the...
View ArticlePeter Cullen on Pike River
Top employment lawyer Peter Cullen writes: One of the positive consequences of the disaster was the new Health and Safety at Work Act, which was the first significant reform of health and safety law...
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