Well, that didn’t take them long did it? I said it here months ago that if we voted a banker in it would be one big grab fest for the bankers and voila. Only to save sound big businesses in need a temporary injection of course.
Superannuation funds, which could include the Cullen Fund, will play a major role in the multibillion-dollar equity investment pool proposed at last week’s Jobs Summit as a salve to recession-hit firms’ balance sheets. (Graham Hodges, chief executive of New Zealand’s biggest bank ANZ National Bank)
Superannuation funds, which could include the Cullen Fund, will play a major role in the multibillion-dollar equity investment pool proposed at last week’s Jobs Summit as a salve to recession-hit firms’ balance sheets, says the country’s top banker.
Graham Hodges, chief executive of New Zealand’s biggest bank ANZ National Bank, attended last week’s summit where bankers proposed a joint fund with the Government to inject capital into firms that were temporarily stressed but essentially sound.
Given Prime Minister John Key’s previous comments hinting that a Government bailout of “iconic” or strategic local companies was a possibility, much of the coverage of the proposal has focused on its potential to aid larger companies.
However Hodges yesterday told the Herald that while planning was still at a very early stage, a two-tier strategy was likely. With an “interventionist” Government and bank-funded model for equity stakes in large companies, a mechanism to allow super funds to invest more easily in small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) was also part of the plan.
Hodges said that at last week’s summit it was made clear that a number of superannuation fund investors including KiwiSaver providers and potentially even the New Zealand Superannuation or Cullen Fund “would dearly love to be able to invest into part of the SME sector but there aren’t easy mechanisms for them to find partner businesses in which to invest”.
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Tags: ANZ, Banksters looting, John Key
