One Air NZ share by Christmas

By Phil Boeyen, ShareChat Business News Editor

Thursday 6th December 2001

Air New Zealand (NZSE: AIRVA) shareholders will find a new share class under the tree on Christmas Eve.

The airline says that a proposal to reclassify its A and B class shares into a single class will be put to shareholders at the company's AGM in the week before Christmas.

If approved, the split class will cease trading on Friday, December 21, and the new reclassified ordinary shares will begin trading on Monday, December 24.

A and B shares have been in existence since the former state-owned airline first listed in October 1989 and were designed to keep a certain number of the shares in the hands of New Zealand owners. The A shares generally traded at a discount to the B shares because the market was limited.

Reclassification of the shares is part of the rescue package agreed between the New Zealand government and the airline which will see the Crown take a majority 82% stake in return for a cash injection of $885 million.

An appraisal report into the restructuring was released yesterday and values the company at between $110 million and $280 million, or 15 to 37 cents per share.

The report concluded that the weighted average price of 25.9 cents per share at which the Crown proposes to acquire control is fair because it falls within the valuation range.

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