Treasury seems to favour a Kiwibank float

There have been many indications that the government is open to the idea of floating Kiwibank on NZX and last week we discovered that Treasury has been offering advice on how best to provide the government-owned bank with more capital.

Probably the most interesting aspect of Treasury's report: Kiwibank Competitiveness Consideration is what's redacted.

This is particularly the case when it discusses the state of Kiwibank's IT systems and whole pages are also left blank when the paper discusses raising capital through an initial public offering (IPO).

But the language in what we can read does make it look like Treasury favours an IPO.

For example, it says: “For a bank which has New Zealand ownership as its point of difference, the natural progression for Kiwibank in raising capital in the medium term is through an IPO,” the report says.