Ownership Reviews

The Electra Trust holds the total shareholding of Electra Limited in trust for those consumers connected to the Electra lines distribution system in the Kapiti-Horowhenua region (the beneficial owners), totalling 44,159 in 2017.

One of the responsibilities of Trustees under the Trust Deed has been to regularly seek a full review of consumer ownership to give the beneficial owners an opportunity to consider different forms of ownership.

Under reviews carried out since the Trust Deed was signed in 1993, the range of ownership options which beneficial owners have been given for consideration include:

• sell the shareholding,
• enter into amalgamations or joint venture with other organisations,
• consider any other possibilities, or
• retain full consumer ownership.

The beneficial owners have consistently voted to retain full local consumer ownership which provides a return on their investment through an annual discount.

In recent years the reviews have been held at seven-yearly intervals and at the last 2006 review, 96.4 percent of the beneficial owners who voted wanted continuing local consumer ownership.

The next review was due in 2013 but on the basis of continuing overwhelming support for local ownership, no evidence of any move to change the form of that ownership, and the high cost of more than $100,000 in holding a review with a postal ballot, Trustees proposed that the 2013 review not be held.

At the 2012 Annual General Meeting the Trust proposed that the requirement for ownership reviews under the Trust Deed be removed but that, as a safeguard, the issue of ownership reviews be reviewed at future AGMs, with the first in 2019.

The proposal, which required a vote of 75 percent or more from those who voted, received 92.6 percent support and the Trust Deed was subsequently amended to remove the requirement for ownership reviews.