Māori Enterprise and the New Zealand Capital ... - Te Puni Kokiri

– As promoters of property developments in New Zealand and overseas in
commercial, residential and tourism properties.
– As corporate investors providing equity to unlisted companies and holding
material stakes in listed companies.
– As development bankers providing seed and development capital to start-up and
early stage business enterprises.
– As holders of co-operative shares (e.g., in relation to shares in Fonterra and
fertiliser co-operatives).
The future needs of Mäori enterprises in relation to capital markets will increase:
• In the post-settlement environment, the prominence of financially endowed iwi is an
important change in the Mäori enterprise landscape.
– The role of iwi relation to local and regional resource management is
being supplemented by an expectation of iwi involvement in infrastructure
development. This has the potential to expand their role in the commercial
sphere in the provision of such assets, but currently they lack the resources to
fund meaningful participation in large-scale capital-intensive investment.
– Iwi are becoming an important conduit between government (at both central
and territorial levels) and the private sector. Modern re-interpretation of the
meaning of Treaty partner relationship is portraying iwi as valuable partners to
private firms seeking to supply services to government.
– Some Treaty settlements have given deferred purchase rights and first rights
of refusal in relation to Crown-owned assets. Settlements have also reserved
the position of claimants with respect to important resources such as water,
geothermal and certain minerals. Claimants will need access to capital to
exercise such rights and/or exploit such resources as they become available.
• Land-owning trusts and Mäori incorporations 4 :
– In sheep and beef farming, structural changes in the industry are occurring in
response to structural cost pressures, exacerbated by drought conditions and
attempts to control the supply chain, reduce costs and improve quality.
– In forestry, face the requirements of financing the replanting of previously
harvested forest lands.
– Have opportunities to develop more intensive land-based activities that would
increase the overall productivity of their land. This includes changing land use,
alternative production, energy supply, adventure tourism, and the like.
• Owners of pre-1990 forest land face a special challenge because of the liability
imposed on them by the Emissions Trading Scheme.
The face of Mäori enterprises is changing. Mäori enterprises are not so tied to land as
a primary economic asset as they once may have been. They engage in an increasingly
wide range of business activities, and the trend is ever widening. The range of economic
activities includes traditional agribusiness, horticulture and forestry (as well as landlords
to others undertaking such activities), commercial fishing, aquaculture, tourism, property
development, and electricity generation. Iwi hold land on which is situated government
buildings such as Police stations, Courts, schools and universities. Iwi may yet become
involved in provision of core national infrastructure in Public Private Partnerships (PPP).
4. The two key commercial structures
that manage Mäori interests in land
are ahu whenua trusts and Mäori
incorporations. In 2008 there were
129 Mäori incorporations and 5,201
ahu whenua trusts which administered
207,157 hectares (or
14 percent of Mäori land) and 750,187
hectares (or 50 percent of Mäori land)
respectively Roughly 15,000 whanau
trusts hold interests in about 15 percent
of Mäori land. Around 2½ percent of
Mäori land is held under other trusts
established under Te Ture Whenua
Mäori Act 1993.
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