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Speaker 1: Now the government's dropping more hints that it's looking to

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Speaker 1: find ways to inject more capital into Kiwibank, obviously to

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Speaker 1: improve competition in the banking sector. The Minister of State

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Speaker 1: Owned Enterprises, Paul Goldsmith, says the government is looking into it.

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Speaker 1: Janetibshrney is The Herald's Wellington business editor with us.

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Speaker 2: Now, how do you name, hey, Heather.

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Speaker 1: So it's got a couple of options here, right. It

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Speaker 1: can obviously inject the cash itself, this is the government.

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Speaker 1: Or it can sell down part of its share in Keiwibank.

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Speaker 1: Which is the most likely? Do you think?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right. Look, I can't say which one is

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Speaker 2: the most likely at the moment, but I think basically, well,

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Speaker 2: actually no, maybe I can, maybe I can speculate. As

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Speaker 2: we all know, the government is cutting costs, we have

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Speaker 2: a lot of debt, so the chances of it forking

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Speaker 2: out billions of dollars to put into a kiwibank right

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Speaker 2: now probably is unlikely, particularly at a time we've got

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Speaker 2: people in the public sector losing their jobs, people crying

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Speaker 2: out for more funding for nurses, police, so on and

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Speaker 2: so on. Also, this government, I believe isn't as wedded

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Speaker 2: to the concept of Qwibank being entirely government owned. Now.

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Speaker 2: I've talked to Paul Goldsmith also Nichola Willis, the Finance Minister,

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Speaker 2: and they are open minded as to how to get

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Speaker 2: more capital into qvbank to enable it to grow. Now

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Speaker 2: before people think the government's going to rush out and

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Speaker 2: sell it to some foreign investors or something, I'm not

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Speaker 2: sure if that would happen. You know, there are a

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Speaker 2: lot of options, including, for example, selling part of it

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Speaker 2: back to the Superfund, for example, which previously owned a

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Speaker 2: stake in Kwibank. So I think that there are a

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Speaker 2: bunch of options and something like that I think could

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Speaker 2: be quite quite workable.

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Speaker 1: If Superfund were to buy into it. Does the government

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Speaker 1: have any control over who's super Fund then on sells

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Speaker 1: it to if they want well that yeah.

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Speaker 2: Look that is the key point, and that is an

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Speaker 2: issue that the previous labor government had because when Kwibank

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Speaker 2: was owned by the New Zealand Post acc and the Superfund,

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Speaker 2: the city and New Zealand Post wanted out and the

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Speaker 2: super Fund said that's okay, we'll buy your stakes on

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Speaker 2: the on the condition that if we want to sell

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Speaker 2: out at some point or we want to welcome capital

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Speaker 2: from private investors, then we should be able to do that. Now,

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Speaker 2: Grant Robertson didn't like that idea, and that's why the

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Speaker 2: government ended up buying Kiwibank outright for two point one

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Speaker 2: billion dollars. You know, I think this government is showing

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Speaker 2: increasing signs that it would be open to different options. Now,

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Speaker 2: Nikola Willis and Paul Goldsmith outright told me that Paul

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Speaker 2: Goldsmith also wrote has written to the KWI Bank board saying,

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Speaker 2: come to me with options for how you think we

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Speaker 2: can grow a kiwibank. And also, interestingly, the government is

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Speaker 2: busy working on doing something different. It's working on writing

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Speaker 2: purpose statements for all the companies and enterprises that it owns. Now,

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Speaker 2: the Treasury reckons this is a valuable exercise because it

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Speaker 2: wants the government to put down on paper what exactly

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Speaker 2: is the point of owning enterprises. Now ki Bank is

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Speaker 2: at the top of the priority list for this exercise.

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Speaker 2: The Treasury has said, look, we're doing this. It doesn't

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Speaker 2: mean to say we're trying to assess what to sell.

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Speaker 2: But if it comes out that there is no point

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Speaker 2: owning some of these entities, including Kiwibank, the government could

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Speaker 2: potentially make a case to sell entertaining part of it.

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Speaker 1: Okay, David Seymour's keen on that, Like, he's made it

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Speaker 1: quite clear that he wants to sell down some of

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Speaker 1: our assets. But now would the NATS feel about that.

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Speaker 2: Look at the moment, they are just saying they are

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Speaker 2: open minded and that they will assess the options. Now

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Speaker 2: that sounds like a boring answer, but I think it

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Speaker 2: is a significant answer because previously governments have said straight

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Speaker 2: up nice you know, they've said no. For example, Labor

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Speaker 2: Grant Robertson said no, k you mean because Zion done

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Speaker 2: and you know, government owned and that's how we're keeping it.

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Speaker 2: So I think this is a broader sort of piece

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Speaker 2: of work that will simmer away in the background. Paul

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Speaker 2: Goldsmith has said, now he's the Minister for State owned Enterprises,

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Speaker 2: that he wouldn't do anything drastic, any big thing would

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Speaker 2: be taken to the election and voters would have their say.

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Speaker 2: But you could assume that this exercise that's happening where

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Speaker 2: they're doing these purpose statements, if those come back and

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Speaker 2: say why the heck do we own this enterprise? You

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Speaker 2: could assume they could go to the next election and

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Speaker 2: say look, we're campaigning on selling it or selling part

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Speaker 2: of it.

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Speaker 1: Music to my ears. I'm here for that.

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Speaker 2: Thank you.

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Speaker 1: Jane tip Trainey, The Herald's Wellington Business Enter. For more

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Speaker 1: from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to News Talk

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Speaker 1: said B from four pm weekdays, or follow the podcast

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Speaker 1: on iHeartRadio