State-Owned Enterprises of New Zealand

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State-Owned Enterprises in New Zealand (known as SOEs) are registered companies listed under Schedules 1 and 2 of the State-Owned Enterprises Act 1986. Most SOEs are former government departments or agencies that were corporatised. List of State-Owned Enterprises and Crown Entities: State sector organisations in New Zealand (listing of State-Owned Enterprises, Crown Entities and other Crown-Owned Companies here) (see also external links)

1 Function
- 1.1 Crown Company Monitoring Advisory Unit
2 Well known SOEs
3 Former SOEs
- 3.1 Privatised SOEs
4 'Shell' SOEs
- 4.1 'Revived' SOEs
5 Non-SOE crown-owned companies
- 5.1 Crown entities
6 External links and sources

[edit] Function

Their function is to operate successfully as a business, as profitable as those not owned by the Crown. The section of the Act defining this is usually interpreted as meaning that SOEs are expected to ready themselves for privatisation, though this is not always the case.

Two Ministers of the Crown act as the shareholding ministers in the company. In the case of SOEs these are usually the Minister of State-Owned Enterprises and the Minister responsible for the particular company.

[edit] Crown Company Monitoring Advisory Unit

The Crown is assisted in the running of SOEs and other Crown-owned companies by the Crown Company Monitoring Advisory Unit (CCMAU) in The Treasury.

[edit] Well known SOEs

Well-known SOEs include:

New Zealand Post Limited
Meteorological Service of New Zealand Limited (MetService)
Airways New Zealand (air traffic control and air navigation providers)
Transpower New Zealand Limited
Broadcast Communications Limited
Mighty River Power Limited
Meridian Energy Limited
Genesis Power Limited
New Zealand Railways Corporation (OnTrack)
Landcorp

[edit] Former SOEs

Former SOEs come in three forms -- [1] those removed from the Schedules of the Act and made Crown entities, [2] those removed and not privatised, and [3] those removed and privatised. Well-known SOEs that became crown entities include broadcasting companies Television New Zealand Limited (TVNZ) and Radio New Zealand Limited (RNZ).

[edit] Privatised SOEs

Privatised SOEs include:

Telecom Corporation of New Zealand Limited.
Petrocorp
State Insurance Office
Health Computing Service
DFC New Zealand Limited
Post Office Bank Limited (Postbank)
New Zealand Shipping Corporation
New Zealand Steel Limited
Air New Zealand Limited (albeit, the government later bought a controlling share in the company)
Rural Banking and Finance Corporation
Government Printing Office
National Film Unit
Tourist Hotel Corporation of New Zealand Limited
Export Guarantee Office
Government Supply Brokerage Corporation (NZ) Limited
Bank of New Zealand (BNZ)
New Zealand Rail Limited (A division of the Railways Corporation)
GCS Limited
Terralink International

and others

Companies that are still SOEs but are now shell companies, having had most of their assets privatised, include:

Electricity Corporation of New Zealand Limited (ECNZ).

Source: The New Zealand Treasury

[edit] 'Shell' SOEs

Some SOEs, such as ECNZ, are effectively small SOEs or shell companies. For example, ECNZ, formerly New Zealand's monopoly electricity generator, is now a shell company following its split into three further SOEs.

Shell SOEs include

Works and Development Services Corporation New Zealand Ltd which remained in state ownership after the sale of Works Civil Construction Ltd to Downer and Company Ltd.

[edit] 'Revived' SOEs

In 2004, the Crown used the New Zealand Railways Corporation (now trading as ONTRACK) to buy back the railway infrastructure from Tranz Rail (now Toll Rail).