February 25, 2013
Trust chair keen to shed shares
The chair of Te Huarahi Tika Trust is keen to get other Māori money into mobile phone company Two Degrees.
She says the trust has held shares on behalf of Māori through its commercial subsidiary, Hautaki Limited.
Previous attempts to get other Māori investors involved came up short, with only two central North Island land incorporations taking the punt.
But Ms Luke says with the company breaking even and heading for a profit the time may be right.
“We’ve also been developing packages to allow smaller groups of Māori to invest rather than the big iwi group. We want to be able to develop some strategies where groups of a hundred could put in some money and come up with packages. We’re still working through those but I think that it’s an opportunity that all Māori need to be able access,” Daphne Luke says.
But a Māori spectrum claimant, Graeme Everton, says Te Huarahi Tika’s books show significant problems with the shareholding, and it would be extremely difficult to bring in new Māori investors.
Copyright © 2013, Uma Broadcasting Ltd