New Zealand’s largest super fund, NZ Super, and infrastructure investor Morrison could wind up as the manager of Kiwibank on behalf of other new owners.
It comes as Macquarie Capital works to find a buyer of the government-owned lender across the Tasman that is slated for an eventual initial public offering.
DataRoom understands that NZ Super, which this column earlier reported was interested, wants to own no more than 50 per cent of the business, while Morrison wants to manage Kiwibank and charge fees to its investors for doing so.
The mandate for the sale from the New Zealand government is that the buyer must be a fund on home shores.
Should NZ Super and Morrison end up with the bank, the understanding is that their plan would be to manage the business on behalf of other investors.
Maori iwi groups are also being targeted as potential owners of the bank, sources say, while others say wealth manager FirstCape, owned by NAB, Jarden and Pacific Equity Partners should also not be discounted.
While Macquarie is working on the sale, investment bank JPMorgan and its New Zealand affiliate Craigs are 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 and the funds could support up to $NZ4bn of business lending or $NZ10bn of home lending.
On Wednesday, she said that after a market testing process, the Cabinet had approved Kiwibank’s parent company raising up to $NZ500m of capital to fund the bank’s growth and the government would retain 51 per cent.
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.
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