BANK OF NEW ZEALAND

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25717, 13 December 1944, Page 6

BANK OF NEW ZEALAND

PROPOSED ACQUISITION BY STATE QUESTION OF SHARE VALUES (P.A.) AUCKLAND, Dec. 12. “We are a non-political body, and it would therefore be most unwise to offer any opinion as to the advisability or otherwise of the possible changeover,” stated a report prepared by the late Mr W. B. dolbeck, formerly acting chairman of the Auckland Stock Exchange, referring to the possibility of the Bank of New Zealand becoming a State bank. Mr Colbeck died suddenly last week. The report was read at the annual meeting of the Stock Exchange to-day. . “If the change-over from private to State ownership should take place,” the report added, “ then I think the Stock Exchange has every right to discuss the question as to the price to be paid for the assets to be transferred. The deal in this case wculd be in a different category from the case of shares in the Reserve Bank resumed by the Government. These carried a fixed interest rate, and therefore holders had no particular interest in the assets. Reserve Bank shares were quite properly taken over at market value.

“The position of shareholders in the Bank of New Zealand is very similar to the position of shareholders in the Westport-Stockton Coal Company,” the report said. “ These shares were taken over by negotiation as to the price between vendor and purchaser, and the same method ought to be adopted in the event of shareholders of the Bank of New Zealand being bought out by the State. If the two parties cannot come to an agreement, then the matters in dispute should be submitted to some agreed-upon court of arbitration.”