Auckland airport shows contempt for retail shareholders
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Yet another major company is showing us how much contempt it has for retail shareholders and, in this particular case, for Auckland Council.
Either it is contempt, or the board has been led by their noses by the lawyers and merchant bankers who find placements just so much more convenient than any more equitable form of capital raising.
There's simply no reasonable excuse that passes the sniff test for this behaviour, common though it is in the New Zealand share market.
The Auckland International Airport $1.4 billion capital raising will dilute the council, which owned 11% pre-raising, without the possibility of any compensation, because of the structure the board chose.
The same fate awaits any of the retail shareholders, if they don't want to, or can't afford to participate in the $200 million allocated to the retail offer.