Early interest as Macquarie hunts New Zealand buyer for Kiwibank

Macquarie Capital is on the hunt for a New Zealand-based buyer of government-owned Kiwibank. Picture: Britta Campion

Bankers at Macquarie Capital are pounding the pavement in their efforts to find a buyer for the New Zealand government-owned Kiwibank, with some early interest emerging.

DataRoom understands that among the two groups looking at the business are New Zealand infrastructure investor Morrison and the country’s super fund investor NZ Super.

Macquarie’s mandate is that they have to sell the bank to a New Zealand fund.

Maori iwi groups are also being targeted as potential owners of the bank, sources say.

While Macquarie is working on the sale, investment bank JPMorgan and its New Zealand affiliate Craigs are understood to have won a role advising the New Zealand government’s treasury. Kiwibank was started in 2001 by the Labour gov­ernment to compete with ­leading Australian lenders.

The plan for Kiwibank is to find a party able to inject $NZ500m ($454m) into the business ahead of a possible initial public offering of the ­government-backed lender in the medium term.

New Zealand Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced the initiative in December.

She said the change would enable New Zealand-owned banks to more vigorously compete against the big four Aus­tralian banks.

Ms Willis said Kiwibank would not be ready for a float until its current digital transformation was completed, expected in 2028.

If an IPO was not approved at a later date, this could take the form of having an option for investors to sell their shares back to the crown at an independently assessed fair value.