South Canterbury Power Trust

CHAIRMAN'S REPORT YEAR ENDED 31 AUGUST, 2001

I have much pleasure in presenting the South Canterbury Power Trust’s eighth annual report and my third report as chairman. 

Trust Election

The Trust’s year commenced with the Trustee’s tri-annual election.  All trustees are required to retire and were eligible to stand for re-election.  The trust is represented in three wards that encompass the three local authority areas in South Canterbury.  Mr Allan Andrews was not challenged in the Waimate District and I was not challenged in the Mackenzie District and consequently we were both re-elected unopposed.  The Timaru area saw Howard Smith being re-elected together with Mr Lawrie Blakemore QSM and Janya Lobb.  I welcome the two new Trustees and appreciate the different perspectives they have bought to the Trust.

Alpine Energy Limited

The Trust has been pleased the way Alpine Energy Ltd has performed this past year.  Network South, the joint subsidiary with Network Waitaki, is performing very satisfactorily.  AEL was rated number 3 on the Ernst & Young 2000 league table; a very credible performance.

The company’s operating surplus was $3.2 million greater than the previous year and as a result the directors decided to reduce their holding in the Opuha Dam by almost $2.5 million.  This has impacted significantly on the final result.  The Trustees are in agreement with this action as the Opuha dam has been of enormous benefit to the South Canterbury community albeit the project has had a less than favourable financial performance.

Compared to other lines companies in New Zealand, Alpine Energy Ltd again proved to be one of the more efficient operators with low interruption frequencies and durations.  Our network achieved 74 minutes average interruption duration compared to the New Zealand average of 118 minutes.  While it is important the Trust achieves an “optimum” financial return on its investment, it is equally important to the Trustees that consumers enjoy high a quality service from the company.

Some months ago the company reduced its line charges by 6%.  This was primarily as a result of a change in Transpower’s pricing structure.  South Canterbury consumers are still waiting for the electricity retailers to pass on the reduction.

Directors

This past year saw Mr Ollie Turner, Mr John Dobson and Mr John Stubbs acting as Trust appointed directors on the Board of Alpine Energy Ltd.

In agreement with the other shareholders of Alpine Energy Ltd, the number of directors on the company’s board has recently been reduced from seven to five directors.  Waimate and Mackenzie District Councils now appoint one director jointly, two directors are appointed by the Timaru District Council and two directors are now appointed by the SC Power Trust.

Messrs John Dobson and John Stubbs retired by rotation in July of this year.  The Trustees reappointed Mr Dobson while Mr Stubbs did not reapply.  I sincerely thank John Stubbs for the valuable contribution he made on behalf of the Trust to the governance of Alpine Energy for the past seven years.  Mr Stubbs was a very valuable member of the team and his inputs were always highly regarded.

I also thank John Dobson and Ollie Turner for their continuing work on the Alpine Board of Directors.

Profit Distribution

This past year the Trustees distributed $1,619,068 to the consumer beneficiaries being 90% of its income after expenses.  Normal domestic consumers received a credit on their electricity accounts of $37.00.  The Trustees rely heavily upon the energy retailers to distribute the Trust’s annual profit.  With significant numbers of electricity consumers choosing to swap their accounts to different retailers, the distribution is becoming increasingly more difficult.  This year’s distribution process commenced in February and is only now at it’s conclusion.

Consumer Poll

In May this year, the Trustees conducted a poll of the Trust’s beneficiaries to seek their opinion on the future of the Trust.  The poll result has not only given the Trustees a clear mandate to resettle the Trust deed in July 2002, but also a mandate to seek consent from the Court to extend the life of the Trust Deed beyond the 15 years that is presently allowed.

Seventy four percent of those who voted favoured a continuation of the Trust and over 52% of the beneficiaries favoured the Trust’s life being extended.

The Trustees have now commenced the process of designing a new Deed of Trust by seeking the opinions of consumers on its content.  Consultation with legal advisors is concurrently taking place to find a solution to extending the life of the Deed.  Advice to date indicates that success achieving a long term Trust may be difficult.

Industry Comment

The electricity industry has just suffered another crisis, mainly attributed to the lack of water storage for hydro electric generation.  Many commentators and consumers are blaming the changes to the industry that have taken place over the years, especially the splitting of the generator ECNZ and the inability of the present generating companies to comprehensively manage the water storage of the country as a whole.

There appears little enthusiasm from the present Government to reverse the failed policies of the previous administration.  I suspect the reason for that is the huge tax take Government is now enjoying from the electricity industry.  Once upon a time the industry was a liability to Government when it was responsible for the construction and maintenance of all New Zealand’s generation installations.  The industry is now an enormous financial asset to Government.  It collects revenue from the profits of the SOE generators and TransPower, it also taxes those businesses together with taxing our network companies and energy retailers and then finally collects GST revenue from the end user consumers.

In Conclusion

Although the continued life of the Trust is not yet assured, I am pleased with the confidence the Trust’s beneficiaries have expressed in the role and the work the Trust does in the South Canterbury community.  I am satisfied with the Trust’s working relationship with the other shareholders of Alpine Energy Limited.  We each have a healthy respect for the other’s differing objectives and the shareholder mix makes for a robust governance of the network company.

Thank you fellow Trustees for your support and my appreciation is again extended to Tom Simpson of McFarlane Hornsey Simpson for his secretarial services.

Alister France
Chairman