MEDIA RELEASE

Chairman clarifies Port shares confusion

For immediate release: Friday, 28 September 2007
Environment Bay of Plenty is not selling its Port of Tauranga shares says Chairman John Cronin.

Mr Cronin says that some people in the Tauranga community particularly have confused two share matters and believe that the regional council intends selling its shares in the Port of Tauranga. This is the complete opposite of the truth Mr Cronin says.

“The council is strongly committed to retaining its majority interest in the Port of Tauranga for the benefit of the region and that policy is widely supported by the community. What we are actually considering is a restructuring of our shareholding in our wholly owned subsidiary Quayside Holdings Ltd by making an offer to the public of Perpetual Preference Shares in that company. We intend to offer up to 200 million $1 non-voting, fixed interest shares to retail and institutional investors in New Zealand. As the shares are non-voting they will have no effect on our controlling interest in the Port of Tauranga.

We expect the public offering to be made before March 2008,” Mr Cronin says.

The regional council chairman says that the sale of the Perpetual Preference Shares is intended to make funding more readily available for priority regional infrastructure.

Mr Cronin says that the regional council is very pleased with the performance of the Port of Tauranga and will continue its long-term involvement there so that regional rates can be kept to a minimum and the region can continue to develop sustainably.

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