Kiwi taxpayer to stump up millions for SCF?
The SST has an extremely interesting article by Greg Ninness on the South Canterbury Finance situation. Yet if you were just browsing the headlines online, you might not realise that.
For the headline is:-
Hubbard faces a wealth wipe-out
Ok, but most will have assumed that anyway. Of much more import is the main content of the article, which breaks the news that Ninness believes that we, the taxpayers of New Zealand, are set to mount a bailout of SCF.
So a rescue that is likely to cost the NZ taxpayer some $250 million (net) and possibly more is initially couched in the terms of Hubbard losing his wealth.
On what grounds is the taxpayer likely to bailout SCF? Is there a business case to justify this action? Why is SCF ‘rescued’, if Ninness is correct. and others not? What sort of dreadful precedent of the future is being set? What signals does this send to business and investors at large?
These are questions the article should have delved closely into. The headline should have been:-
Kiwi taxpayer to stump up millions for SCF?
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Adam, See my comment on Homepaddock. Since my post, I have heard that a relation of mine, through marriage, is likely to lose a lot of money. Your post and others on the CF issue are to the point and valid. But why have the authorities not pursued Hanover and the like and their Directors? Allied Farmers may be next. Perhaps, then, we can have a wholesale change in our regulatory authorities.