June 1999 decisionsINL gets approval to buy Sky TVIndependent Newspapers Ltd, which is 49.29% owned by News Ltd – in turn 30.35% owned by the (Rupert) Murdoch family – has approval to acquire 100% of Sky Network Television Ltd. Sky has a virtual monopoly of cable and satellite TV broadcasting in Aotearoa. The OIC describes the Murdoch family as being from Australia, but Rupert Murdoch is a U.S. citizen.
Previously, Sky had been 40.23% owned by INL. Sky’s other shareholders, according to the OIC were · TVNZ (through TVNZ Investments Ltd), 12.61% · Todd Corporation Ltd, 10.93% · Craig Heatley, 7.12% · Terry Jarvis, 7.12% · Alan Gibbs, 3.38% · Trevor Farmer, 3.38% · public shareholding, 15.22%
The price paid by INL is given as $94,198,313. However that price is not for the remaining 59.77%: INL did not wish to increase its holding past 50% as it did not want to consolidate Sky into its accounts.
The deal reeked of special favours. The shares INL purchased came from TVNZ which sold its entire 46 million shares. According to news reports, INL bought 34.2 million or 9.37%, taking its total to 49.6%, although the OIC reports that it finished up with 49.29%. Craig Heatley (through a Heatley family trust company, Multum) and Todd Corporation (through Todd Communications) took the remaining 11.8 million shares (or 3.2%) – Heatley 1.96% and Todd Corporation 1.22%. (The same news report put Todd’s shareholdings at 8.24% and Heatley’s 5.07% before the purchase, which differ from the OIC’s figures.)
What caused raised eyebrows was the price. TVNZ accepted a price of $2.75 per share, despite a higher offer from a consortium of institutional investors of a reported $2.90 – worth an extra $6.9 million. The price on the Stock Exchange was $2.88 just before the INL bid was announced, and rose to $3.19 by the end of June. The low price was doubly surprising given that the government has repeatedly tried to sell TVNZ, alleging it would cost too much to upgrade to digital television. It then grabbed $70 million of the proceeds as a special dividend, as if to underline its hypocrisy. It apparently allowed its chair, Rosanne Meo, to accept the lower bid on the feeble – and anti-competitive – grounds that “TVNZ places considerable importance and value on a positive and co-operative ongoing relationship with Sky and its existing major shareholders”. Even the Stock Exchange’s market surveillance panel asked for an explanation, but said “it was prepared to accept the unqualified assurances at face value from Sky and INL, two reputable listed issuers”. So much for surveillance.
Most of the leading actors have political connections. Rosanne Meo, Alan Gibbs, Trevor Farmer, and INL managing director, Mike Robson, are all past or present members of the Business Roundtable. Craig Heatley, Sky chairman, has been a major financial backer of ACT, and founded Sky with Terry Jarvis. All are prominent warriors of the business and/or political New Right, with many business interconnections. They fit well with Rupert Murdoch’s political colours – though happy to be as politically opportunist as necessary to make a deal, his views are probably well represented by his criticism of the conservative Howard-led government in Australia shortly after its election in 1996. Murdoch criticised it for not carrying out radical reforms, saying New Zealand was the model to follow (Press, 20/12/96, “Howard hits back at reform criticism”, p.10).
In October 1999, Heatley and Todd launched a bid for shares in INL, Heatley selling some of his Sky shares – at $3.17 – to finance part of the acquisition. At 9/10/99 they had 11% between them, Heatley with 6% and Todd with 5%, and were said to be likely to continue buying – at a premium of 14% to market value ($7.75 against $6.80). Heatley said he had an association with News Corporation going back eight or nine years.
Sky has been aggressively looking for partners in expansion opportunities. A proposal to take a shareholding in Internet provider, Ihug, fell over, while it ditched TVNZ in favour of Canadian-owned TV3 for rebroadcasting the sports – rugby, rugby league and cricket – which Sky has purchased. TV3 will also provide Sky with its nightly news broadcast, previously provided by TVNZ (Press, 22/9/99, “TVNZ cans Sky replay rights on news”, p.3). TVNZ’s costly desire to stay friends with Sky has not apparently paid any dividends.
References: Press, 21/5/99, “Sky TV future promising”, “Gibbs resigns”, p.15; 1/6/99, “Sky TV sell-off likely”, p.36; 5/6/99, “INL pursues controlling stake in Sky”, p.21; 29/6/99, “TVNZ rejects bid for Sky”, p.23; 30/6/99, “TVNZ sticks to original offer for Sky stake”, p.28;8/7/99, “Stock Exchange accepts INL, Sky assurances”, p.16; 8/10/99, “Late raiders target INL”, p.16; 9/10/99, “Raiders could lift INL stake beyond 11%”, p.21; New Zealand Herald, 9/10/99, “INL swoop bumps up media holdings”, by Geoff Senescall. Brierley Investments of Malaysia and Singapore buys more of Air New ZealandBrierley Investments Ltd, controlled in Malaysia and Singapore, has approval to acquire up to 26% of Air New Zealand’s shares, to add to its already controlling shareholding. The price is “to be advised”. BIL is 20% owned by the Camerlin Group Berhad of Malaysia; 6.4% owned by the Singapore Government (through Temasek Holdings (Private) Ltd); 6.7% by Franklin Resources Ltd of the U.S.A.; 26.9% by persons “who may be overseas persons”; and the remaining 40% owned in Aotearoa. Camerlin’s shareholders include the Singapore Government and the Salim Group, controlled by Liem Sioe Liong, the closest and oldest business partner of dumped Indonesian dictator, General Suharto.
According to world expert on the Suharto wealth, George Aditjondro, BIL has other ties to the Suharto family through its AsiaPower subsidiary, which has a joint venture with Suharto’s son Tommy (of Lilybank fame). Tommy (proper name Hutomo Mandala Putra) is listed in BIL’s 1998 Annual Report as a director of another BIL subsidiary, Mandala Nusantara Limited. Similar joint ventures with members of the Suharto family by transnationals operating in Indonesia have been vehicles for sizeable payoffs to the family.
BIL recently decided to move its headquarters to Singapore. There is therefore little ambiguity any more in its overseas control. It officially became an overseas company in the eyes of the OIC in December 1996 after prodding from CAFCA as a result of the overnight raid that led to the Camerlin consortium’s controlling shareholding (see Foreign Control Watchdog, May 1997, “It’s Official: Brierley Investments is an Overseas Company”, by Bill Rosenberg, p.14-19). Until then the OIC had sheltered behind the claim that, though the company’s overseas shareholding was around 50%, it was still controlled in Aotearoa. It is now 70%.
The shadiest part of the OIC’s decision was a special deal it did with regard to Air New Zealand. International air transport is one area relatively untouched by deregulation. The system of licensing air traffic rights, and thereby restricting competition, suits the big powers such as the U.S.A. because it enables them to keep out cheap competition and fly-by-nights. Landing rights are negotiated on a tit-for-tat basis between countries and hence the nationality, ownership and control of an airline are all important. If Air New Zealand became foreign owned it would almost certainly lose its traffic rights across the world and hence its ability to fly internationally. Conventions have been relaxed in recent years, so that 51% ownership by New Zealanders is now sufficient where previously considerably more was considered necessary. When Air New Zealand was privatised in 1988, 65% of the shares were classed as “A” shares which could be held only by local residents or companies. The other 35% were “B” shares, which could be held by anyone. That has been changed to 51% and 49% respectively.
Since BIL was overseas controlled, it could not own “A” shares in Air New Zealand. It could theoretically sell them and buy “B” shares, but the “B” shares (which it assiduously collected) are harder to come by and more expensive because of their wider currency. Without some kind of deal, BIL would have to sell the “A” shares and potentially its control of the company.
So BIL and the OIC created a fiction: that a wholly owned subsidiary company of BIL could be independent (“fenced off”) from BIL itself. The Air New Zealand shares would be transferred to it and thus be “locally controlled”. A BIL subsidiary originally registered in 1989, Siros Investments Ltd, was dusted off, renamed BIL NZ Assets Ltd, and given four directors: Bob Matthew (then chairman of BIL and Air New Zealand), Sir Ron Trotter (a director of Air New Zealand among his many other interests), Peter Shirtcliffe (then chairman of Telecom, etc), and William Mcleod Wilson, a Wellington partner in the law firm Bell, Gully, Buddle Weir. (According to the Companies Office, Matthew, having been pushed out as chairman by Camerlin, has now been replaced on BIL NZ Assets by Mark Horton, BIL’s company secretary.) The subsidiary had a total capital of $29,968 according to the Press (7/1/97, “BIL ring-fences airline stake for safe keeping”, p.21), but owns shares worth several hundred million dollars. We presume the fiction of “local control” rests on the fact that three of the company’s four directors are resident in Aotearoa but not BIL directors. If that were true, then any transnational could with little trouble transform itself into a “New Zealand” company for the purposes of the OIC. The fiction is emphasised in this case by the fact that Selwyn Cushing chairs both BIL and Air New Zealand – but is not a BIL NZ Assets director.
BIL’s purchase of further Air New Zealand shares came in two contexts. Firstly, BIL is in a bad financial state, with a collapsed share price, and is trying to offload its many badly performing investments. Air New Zealand was seen as one of those that were worth keeping. Secondly, early in the year, News Corporation announced that it wanted to sell its 50% of Ansett Australia, of which Air New Zealand owned the other 50%. A fight developed between Air New Zealand (which had pre-emptive purchase rights) and Singapore Airlines for News Corporation’s shareholding. News Corporation withdrew its offer to sell as a result, but BIL positioned itself to profit from the takeover by buying more shares in Air New Zealand. On 2/6/99 it announced through BIL NZ Assets that it intended to raise its shareholding to 60% of the company by 30/9/99 – 67.13% of “A” shares, and 52.91% of “B” shares. It was planning to pay $2.40 to $3.40 for the “A” shares and $3.30 to $4.30 for the “B” shares.
However, the most recent announcement to date of a change in substantial shareholding was on 27/5/99 when BIL had acquired shares to give it a total of only 59.52% of “A” shares and 34.19% of “B” shares, giving it 47.11% of the company. It paid $105.7 million for them: from $2.75 to $3.40 for the “A” shares and from $3.72 to $4.30 for the “B” shares. It is therefore not clear whether the shares which were the subject of the present decision were ever purchased. If they were, then they have not been notified as a change in substantial shareholding as would be required.
It is clear however, that the fight for control of both Air New Zealand and Ansett Australia continues. It is all the more significant because Ansett New Zealand, whose 100% owner, News Corporation, reportedly wants to sell out of too, is beating up its pilots to increase its profitability. The pilots claim that its apparent losses are in fact only on paper: that for example it pays excessive leasing fees for its aeroplanes to Ansett Australia. If Air New Zealand gets control of Ansett Australia, then it may be the last straw for Ansett New Zealand and Aotearoa will have only one national domestic airline – and one controlled (despite the OIC’s charades) overseas.
The OIC’s decision highlights that Air New Zealand is not only an airline. It has large tourist and infrastructure holdings, including substantial areas of land in sensitive areas. The OIC lists these as follows:
· 209 hectares of freehold land comprising · 22 hectares at Remarkables Ski Area Road, Otago; · 37 hectares at Manapouri Airstrip, Otago; and · 150 hectares at Pukaki Airstrip, 3 km north of Twizel, Canterbury. · 4,803 hectares of leasehold land comprising · 323 hectares at Rastus Burn Recreation Reserve and Coronet Peak Recreation Reserve, Otago; and · 4,481 hectares at Mt Hutt Ski Area and Mount Cook Aerodrome, Canterbury. SGS merges with competitor, Diagnostic Laboratory Holdings LtdSGS Investments Ltd, a subsidiary of SGS Societe Generale de Surveillance Holding SA of Switzerland, has approval to acquire up to 35% of Diagnostic Laboratory Holdings Ltd for a suppressed price.
“SGS Investments Ltd advise that its interests and those of Diagnostic Laboratory Holdings Ltd are substantially in the same business, being medical laboratories and pathology services, with a single funder in the Health Funding Authority. The stated rationale for the proposed merger is that as independent entities the two businesses are not sustainable. By merging and rationalising their operations the two parties intend to construct a sustainable business operation.”
In April 1993 we reported that SGS “owns three big medical laboratories in Aotearoa: Medlab Ltd (Auckland), Valley Diagnostic Laboratories (Lower Hutt) and Medlab South Ltd. Medlab South took a major shareholding in Canterbury Pathology (a merger of the Pearson and Godfrey Laboratories) in Christchurch in 1990 (Press, 24/6/92, 29/7/92).
At the time, the company’s web site in Aotearoa (http://www.sgs.co.nz/about.htm) said:
Societe Generale de Surveillance has had a presence in New Zealand since 1976 and now operates from over 28 locations through the North and South Islands. SGS New Zealand employs over 800 people from all scientific disciplines including analytical chemists, metallurgists, agriculturalists, radiographers, physicists, biologists, quality assurance specialists, pathologists and technicians involved in the medical field.
It has four operating groups:
· Inspection and Testing Group (Gold and mineral assays; grain, pulse and rice testing and weighing; petrochemical and petroleum product testing; export verification programmes; non destructive testing; and statutory inspection); · Wool Testing Group (Wool fibre testing); · Quality and Laboratory Group (Analysis of foods, residues, herbicides and chemicals; quality certification and training); and · Medical Group (Clinical pathology laboratory analysis; and radiology services).
SGS is responsible for quality testing of petrol and diesel, on contract to the Ministry of Commerce. It has a near monopoly on medical laboratory testing in the South Island
It ran into controversy in Hawkes Bay in May 1998 when Alliance health spokesperson, Phillida Bunkle, tabled documents in Parliament that said SGS subsidiary, Medlab, was using inducements such as paying a $5,000 advertising account for a doctors’ group there, to send it their laboratory work. The Medical Council had written to the then Health Minister, Bill English, the previous year, stating its concern at the situation. It said patients’ treatment might be compromised if doctors accepted inducements, which had been made illegal in Australia and the U.S.A. English refused to act, saying it was too hard to distinguish between legitimate promotion of products and inducements (Press, 8/5/98, “Doctors deny Medlab claim”, p.9).
Its greatest controversy has been in relation to the bribery scandal in Pakistan that led to the sentencing to five years jail of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and her husband. In April 1999 she was found guilty of accepting kickbacks worth US$9 million from SGS (6% of the contract), conditional on receiving a contract to improve Pakistan’s collection of customs revenue. SGS was hired (without open contest) while she was Prime Minister. In 1997, SGS suspended Hans Fischer, a senior executive vice-president of the company, when the corruption allegations came to light. The Financial Times quotes officials as saying that the contracts led to no substantial improvement in import tax revenues (Time, 26/4/99, “Bhutto brought to book”, p.45; Financial Times (London), 23/9/97, “Executive suspended in Bhutto probe”, p.3).
SGS acts as the customs authorisation authority for a number of third world countries including Guinea and Indonesia. It also does logging certification in a number of countries, for which it has come under criticism. In Gabon, it certified a French/German company in spite of the tropical forest in question being a reserve (Planet ENN Features, 14/4/97, “Saving the world’s forests”, by Jean-Pierre Kiekens, http://www.enn.com/enn-news-archive/1997/04/041797/feature.asp). In Cambodia, it was hired to perform pre-shipment inspections after the IMF had cancelled a $20 million loan to Cambodia citing a lack of transparency in Cambodia’s forestry policy and accounting for logging revenues. However, SGS refused to help enforce Cambodia’s log export ban saying it was not a law enforcement agency and not a paramilitary force, causing a setback to the conservation measure (Globewatch, “Swiss firm declines to enforce Cambodian log ban”, http://www.mcs.net/~rogers/globe/cambo.html).
So SGS is effectively acting as a quasi-governmental authority in many countries. The parent company’s web site says “The SGS Group provides services in more than 140 countries. Its global capability allows clients to have their interests protected anywhere in the world with a ‘single source’ solution.” (http://www.sgsgroup.com/sgsgroup.nsf/pages/about.html) and “SGS currently assists about 30 Governments by providing services which include facilitation of Customs clearance, correct assessment of import duties and taxes, monitoring of compliance with import regulations and minimisation of capital flight. SGS also provides project monitoring services to help banks and international aid agencies to ensure that funds provided are properly used.” (http://www.sgsgroup.com/sgsgroup.nsf/pages/services.html)
But obviously it often has limited effectiveness. In another example, Multinational Monitor (December 1993, “Nestle’s Toxic Milk Returned”), reported that Nestle Lanka, a subsidiary of the multinational food firm, returned a 15-ton consignment of radioactive milk powder imported from Poland:
“In November 1993, Sri Lankan customs authorities ordered the company to return the milk powder after local tests showed it contained more than the permissible amount of radioactive particles. The spokesperson said the entire consignment was re-shipped on December 6, 1993 to the port of origin for further checks. Customs officials said the discovery was made by the Radio Isotope Centre of the University of Colombo…
Checks were introduced following the 1984 disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the then-Soviet Union, which raised fears that neighbouring milk-producing countries could have been affected.
The company spokesperson said the consignment had been certified by the Geneva-based Societe Generale de Surveillance (SGS) as having the permissible amount of radioactive material before arriving in Colombo. ‘The SGS is a world famous organisation that issues certificates of conformity and standards on milk and other products. They are standing by their original certificate,’ he said.”
The World Jewish Congress also accused the company of, in 1945, holding foreign accounts (mostly Jewish), which would be worth US$29 million today. The Congress quoted declassified U.S. government documents. The company denied the charges (Business Week, 6/5/96, “More evidence of hidden holocaust cash”, p.38; Reuter European Business Report, 20/9/96, “SGS defends wartime role, says no Jewish funds”). Kiwi Income buys up more land for Northlands Mall in ChristchurchKiwi Income Property Trust subsidiary Northlands Mall Precinct Ltd has approval to acquire 0.2359 hectares of land at 15 Sawyers Arms Road, Northlands, Christchurch for $1,687,500 from the Northcote Christian Fellowship Trust Board. The land “is critical to the long term development of the adjoining Northlands Shopping Mall site owned by the company”.
In March 1998, we reported that Kiwi Income Property Trust had approval to acquire “up to the remaining 50%” of Northlands Property Holdings Ltd it did not already own, for $22,500,000. Northlands Property Holdings is the “indirect owner” of the Northlands Mall. In April 1999, Northlands Retail Precinct Ltd got OIC approval to expand the Mall by acquiring the land and buildings of the adjacent Countdown Supermarket and Farmers Warehouse from Progressive Enterprises Ltd.
Kiwi Income Property Trust is managed by Kiwi Income Properties Ltd which until April 1998 was 50% controlled by FCMI Financial Corporation of Canada, and the remainder by “New Zealand residents”. The “New Zealand residents” are the managers of the company, Richard Didsbury and Ross Green, according to Brian Gaynor (New Zealand Herald, 31/7/99, “Jackpot bypasses investors”, p.E2). Their company had received 25.6% of KIPT’s total dividends as management fees since 1994 – the highest amongst such “management company” arrangements. Gaynor commented:
“Kiwi Income’s Mr Didsbury and Mr Green have made the biggest killing from the management company structure. Since its formation in 1992 Kiwi has expanded rapidly and the management company has received $26.8 million in fees. The manager probably retained most of these payments. The original management fee was 0.75% of gross assets with a performance element equal to 20% of any increase in asset values. The performance fee was abolished on 31/3/98 and the flat fee raised to 0.85%.”
In April 1998, Lend Lease Property Investment Services Ltd, a subsidiary of Lend Lease Corporation Ltd of Australia, received OIC approval to acquire up to 50% of Kiwi Income Properties Ltd. Gaynor says this was by an issue of further shares, and Lend Lease has the right to acquire 100% within three years. Kiwi Income is in the process of bidding for another property company, Shortland Properties, run by the Todd family. Universal Homes buys six hectares of Greenhithe, Auckland land for housingUniversal Homes Ltd, which is 73% owned in Singapore and 27% by Everbright Holdings Ltd of China, has approval to acquire six hectares of land at Kyle Road, Greenhithe, Auckland from Wickham Development Ltd of Aotearoa for $2,025,000. Universal intends to subdivide the land into 40 sections and build new houses on them.
Universal last gained an approval to acquire land in February 1998, when it received approval to acquire five hectares of land in Rush Creek Drive, Massey, Auckland, from Fletcher Homes Ltd for residential subdivision, for $2,850,000. At that time, Universal Homes was described as being owned by China Everbright Pacific Ltd, which was listed in Singapore but owned 27% by China Everbright Holdings Ltd of China. Tiong firm, Neil Construction, buys Albany land for developmentNeil Construction Ltd, owned by Neil Holdings Ltd, itself owned by the Tiong Family of Malaysia, has approval to acquire 13 hectares of land at Apollo Drive, Albany, Auckland for $4,500,000. The land is in a proposed Business Park Zone and it is claimed that there is a demand for further development. Neil Construction has developed a number of residential subdivisions in the Auckland area – its last purchase approved by the OIC was in October 1997 – and employs 20 staff. Lion Nathan buys remaining 50% of New Zealand Wines and SpiritsWines and Spirits Holdings Ltd, a subsidiary of Lion Nathan Ltd (in turn owned 45%, and controlled, by Kirin Brewery Company Ltd of Japan) has approval to acquire the 50% it doesn’t already own of New Zealand Wines and Spirits Partnership for a suppressed amount. The shares are being purchased equally from Allied Domecq Spirits and Wine Plc and Diageo Group Plc, both of the U.K.
New Zealand Wines and Spirits is the largest liquor distributor in the country. It also has a bottling plant in East Tamaki, Auckland. Carter Holt buys land under its Kawerau administration offices from TasmanCarter Holt Harvey Ltd, 51% owned by International Paper Company Ltd of the U.S.A., has approval to acquire eight hectares of land at Fletcher and Spencer Avenues, Kawerau, Bay of Plenty, adjoining its mill, from Tasman Pulp and Paper Company Ltd for $129,375. “Approximately 1.5 hectares of the land has been used and occupied by Carter Holt for over 40 years on the basis of an informal tenancy with Tasman Pulp and Paper Company Ltd, and contains the Carter Holt Administration Offices, car park, underground services, bridge, road and chip yard.”
It is buying the land to ensure the property’s security including “essential pipelines that service Carter Holt’s entire adjoining mill site at Kawerau”. It has long term plans to use the rest of the site for stormwater treatment and control to comply with Bay of Plenty Regional Council conditions, and possibly a chipping and debarking facility, and a co-generation plant to provide electricity and steam to the mill.
Tasman – a 100% subsidiary of Fletcher Paper – is reported by the OIC to be only 37% owned in Aotearoa. It is 39% owned in the U.S.A., 10% in Australia, 9% in the U.K. and the remaining 5% “unknown”. Weber Bros Circus buys land in PaeroaWeber Bros Circus Ltd, owned 75% by H. Weber of Australia and 25% by G. Weber of Aotearoa (both of whom are Australian citizens), has approval to acquire six hectares of land at State Highway 2, Paeroa, Bay of Plenty from Promotre Corporation Ltd of Aotearoa for $506,250. “Weber Bros intend to use the land primarily as a base for its circus and the training of new acts.” The circus tours Aotearoa. Land for forestry· Carter Holt Harvey Ltd is also buying 95 hectares of forestry right at Mount Edgecumbe Station, Tamarangi Drive, Kawerau, Waikato for a suppressed price from Landcorp Farming Ltd. “The forestry right will ensure the supply of eucalyptus pulp for the manufacture of tissue paper” at Carter Holt’s Kawerau mill. · Forestate Gisborne Management Ltd has approval to acquire 288 hectares of land at Ngakaroa Road, Gisborne known as Eves Forest, for $100 from A. and M. Bunting. A 90 year forestry right over the land was acquired in July 1994 for $257,000. Forestate is owned 50/50 by Colin M. Eves and Daniel Madlung of Canada, and the company is based in British Columbia, Canada. · Old Mill Forest Partners, which is owned by the Paulus family of the U.S.A., has approval to acquire 331 hectares of land including the 281 hectare radiata Black Hill Forest at Ihungia Road, Te Puia Springs, Gisborne for $1,055,250, from M. Eivers. Roger Dickie of Aotearoa will have a 5% forestry right granted to him “as part of the sale and purchase”, and Roger Dickie (New Zealand) Ltd will be consulted in the management of the forest. Old Mill has six other forests in the area, and plans to join 59 other forests to construct a “major wood processing facility in the Gisborne or Napier region on or about the year 2015”. The last forest sale to Old Mill was in July 1998. Kenyan and Swiss missionaries buy another Southland farm[Editor's note: unfortunately most of the URLs in this item have disappeared from the internet since it was written.]
Five Christian missionary organisations, from Kenya and Switzerland, which in January 1999 received approval to acquire seven farms totalling 1,670 hectares in Southland for a total of $6,480,000, have approval to acquire a further farm of 267 hectares for $393,750. One of the properties purchased in January, Braxton Hill Station, adjoins the new purchase, bringing the combined property to 910 hectares. The new purchase is at Goodall Road, Mossburn, Southland.
As previously, they are making the purchase through their company, Biofarm Ltd, in which each holds a 20% interest. They are Trinity Fellowship and Stiftung Fuer Missionarishe Entwick Lungshilfe of Kenya, and Stiftung Te Amo, Christian Solidarity International, and Aktion Fuer Verfolgte Christen of Switzerland.
While Biofarm Limited will continue with the existing land use in the meantime, it intends to undertake a feasibility study to determine whether to change to organic farming, cropping and conversion to dairying. It is intended to enhance and expand the cattle-breeding programme at the Braxton Hill Station, by increasing the variety of livestock to include dairy cattle as well as beef. It is also intended to set up a cheese processing operation, based on organically produced cheeses, in an existing building in one of the neighbouring towns.”
We commented in January, that it all “doesn’t leave much time for evangelising”. That comment seems all the more apposite when a little more of the organisations is known. Christian Solidarity International has made it into the headlines by buying slaves from Sudanese slave traders, as a means of freeing them. This practice has been criticised by UNICEF – which along with Amnesty International identified the existence of the trade – for encouraging the trade and in fact financing arms for the civil war in the Sudan (http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/5557/feb994.html). Another religious group recently stopped the practice as a result (Evangelical Press News Service, 9/10/99, “Ministry Changes Policy On ‘Slave Redemption’”, http://www.mcjonline.com/news/news3114.htm).
Though CSI’s activities have made mainstream television in the U.S.A. (see http://www.csi-int.ch/special01.html), their motives are not purely humanitarian. A motivation seems to be opposition to any religion but Christianity. For example, the “primary objective” of the organisation is stated to be “to promote international respect for the God-given right of every human being to choose and to practice his or her own religion or belief (see also Article 18 of the United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights).” (see their web site at http://www.csi-int.ch/whatis.html.)
Their introduction to their Sudanese campaign begins:
“Redemption of Slaves in the Sudan
The Government of Sudan is waging a “Holy War” to Islamize by force the ethnically and religiously diverse country. Slave raids, together with conventional warfare, are among the means used by the Government of Sudan to carry out its policy of Islamization.”
The approach of the Swiss CSI, which was the original group, appears to have alienated supporters. For example, the former U.K. branch states on its web site: “Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) was previously the UK branch of Christian Solidarity International (CSI), founded in Switzerland by Pastor Hans Stuckelberger. CSI UK decided, after much thought and consultation, to separate from CSI Switzerland in September 1997.” (http://www.csworldwide.org/about.html). The U.K. group, headed by British peer, Baroness Caroline Cox, is also involved in buying Sudanese slaves.
Trinity Fellowship, of Kenya, owns and runs the Rondo Retreat Centre in the Kakamega Rain Forest (see http://www.rondoretreat.com).
“Rondo has been a youth centre, an orphanage and the setting for the film, The Kitchen Toto. Today it is designed as a place of retreat and refreshment.” Their web site boasts
EXCELLENT FOOD: Candlelit dinners, sustaining lunches, hearty English breakfasts are served in a bright cosy dining room, in front of a crackling fire if the air is cool. Tea can be taken in the sitting room, on the main verandah or in your cottage or room.
COMFORTABLE ACCOMMODATION: Choose a cottage in the gardens or opt for a bedroom in the main house if you prefer. There are four double rooms in the main house, five doubles in Turaco Cottage, three doubles in Colobus Cottage, and one double and one triple in the Founders’ Cottage.
The public rooms are furnished with beautiful antiques and local paintings, crafts and fabrics. The sitting room is the perfect place for quiet reading or after-dinner conversation.
It describes the Trinity Fellowship as “committed to communication and conservation. Communicating the Good News of the Lord Jesus Christ to all people everywhere; and conserving the earth and its resources to meet needs in the world.”
None of which helps explains why such organisations can afford to spend considerable sums to run organic farms in Southland, Aotearoa. Cleary family of Ireland buys 744 ha. more farms in SouthlandThe Cleary family of Ireland (“Mr Cleary … has been granted New Zealand citizenship”), through their company, Athlumney Farms, has approval to acquire four more farms in Southland, totalling 744 hectares, for $3,958,750. All are to be converted to dairying from sheep and deer farming. They are · 218 hectares at the corner of State Highway 6 and Divers Road, Lady Barkly, 2 RD, Winton, from S. J. Clarke; · 292 hectares at the corner of Irthing Road and Five Rivers Mossburn Road, Lumsden, from J. and R. Dodds; · 159 hectares at the corner of Aparima Road and the Wairio Wreys Bush Road, Otautau, from H. and S. Simmers; and · 75 hectares at 1555 Dipton-Winton State Highway 6, Centre Bush, Winton, from B. and G. Brand.
In February 1999 we reported that the family had, through Athlumney Farms, acquired five properties in Southland, totalling 626 hectares, for $4,692,000, which they intended to convert to dairying, and 106 hectares at Te Kauwhata, Waikato for $675,000. They had previously purchased land in the Waikato, some for farming and some for “lifestyle” development and sale. Other rural land sales· Mr and Mrs A. and J. Watmore of the U.K. have approval to acquire six hectares of land at 301-331 Spencer Road, Lake Tarawera, Rotorua, Bay of Plenty for $2,825,000. They “intend to take up permanent residency in New Zealand and develop the property as a lodge facility”. The purchase is from A.H. Hong of Singapore. · Nobilo Wines Ltd has approval to acquire 97 hectares of land at Neals Road and Rarangi Rd, Marlborough for $1,278,800 for development as a vineyard growing sauvignon blanc grapes. The vendor is Rarangi Holdings Trust (P & S Woolley) of Aotearoa. Nobilo in its present form was created after a complex series of takeovers involving National Liquor Distributors Ltd and other companies, and a public float: see our commentary on the September 1998 OIC decisions. It is owned 30.2% by the Nobilo Family of Aotearoa, 23.6% by BRL Hardy Ltd of Australia, 18.5% by George R. Gardiner of Canada, 9.2% by the Vieceli Family of Aotearoa, and 18.5% in public shareholdings. · Mr C. R. Goodyear of the U.K. has approval to acquire 11 hectares of land at Old Renwick Road, Blenheim, Marlborough for $506,250 to establish a vineyard on the land, currently used for grazing and mixed cropping. In the long term he “expects to invest in a winery in conjunction with other vineyards and to market his own wine label both locally and internationally”. · The Montagnat family of New Caledonia has retrospective approval to acquire 27.2% of Gibbston Valley Wines Ltd for $200,000 through a share issue. Gibbston Valley Wines owns five hectares of land at Kawarau Gorge, on State Highway 6, Otago. It acquired that property in 1990, but the Montagnat family took its shareholding later than that (though at a time unspecified by the OIC). · Cornish Point Wines Ltd, owned by Nigel Douglas Greening of the U.K., has approval to acquire ten hectares of land at Cornish Point Road, Bannockburn, Cromwell, Otago, for $365,625. The land, which adjoins a lake, is currently an apple and apricot orchard and will be converted to a “boutique Pino Noir vineyard with the intention of producing high quality, high price wine for the export market. The proposal includes building a winery and vineyard manager’s house on site.”
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Compiled by: Campaign Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa, P. O. Box 2258 Christchurch. |
