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.