Shareholder commitment assists with planning for CPW scheme

4 July 2013

Shareholder commitment will assist with planning for CPW scheme

Central Plains Water Ltd shareholders have been asked to give an indicative commitment to the scheme by July 12.

Although non binding, the letter of commitment will give CPWL an overview of the number of shareholders who want to be part of the scheme and their geographic location. The indicative commitment is also a precondition set down by CPWL’s funders.

Derek Crombie, CEO of CPWL, said that while the design for Stage 1 was well advanced, information gathered now would help designers with the overall scheme design.

“We want to future-proof the scheme design so that when we are building Stage 1 we do so with an understanding of the water demand for Stages 2 and 3.

“If uptake for the first stage of the scheme is high enough this stage can be completed by September 2015. Similar demand in the Sheffield area could see a sub scheme developed there by the same date or earlier.

“Construction of the remainder of the scheme will be dependent on demand but it will be possible to move from Stage 1 to Stage 2 design and construction progressively so that the second stage of the scheme could be delivering water by 2016 and the full scheme could be completed by 2018.

“There are a number of conditions to this timetable the most important being shareholder commitment and development of sufficient storage to secure the reliability required,” he said.

An indicative timetable is:

• Stage 1 - 23,000 Ha -Te Pirita, Sheffield – Construction: January 2014- September 2015
• Stage 2 - 10,000 Ha -Hororata-Greendale- Burnham - Construction: September 2015 – Sept 2016
• Stage 3 - 27,000 Ha -Coalgate- Kirwee- Waimakariri – Construction: September 2016 – Sept 2018

Crombie was heartened by the turnout at a recent series of workshops, which was attended by nearly 500 people.

“We asked for attendees to sign this indicative letter at the workshops and a good percentage did with others now starting to arrive by mail. By close off on July 12 we would expect to have received letters from most of our shareholders.

“The mood of these meetings was very positive and the fact we had nearly 300 turn up at our Darfield workshop was amazing,” he said.

CPWL plans to make an offer of shares to its shareholders in September 2013. No money is currently being sought and no applications for shares will be accepted until shareholders have received an investment statement.

ENDS

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