Last week, QAC announced a strategic alliance with Auckland International Airport, which resulted in 24.99% of new shares being created and then sold to AIA for $27.7 million.
Residents and the business community were taken by surprise at the news as were the Queenstown Lakes District councillors, who were only told of the deal on Wednesday night before Thursday morning's press conference.
Cr van Uden said she met a group of "local businessmen" yesterday who banded together because they shared her "very deep-seated concerns that this is not a good deal for the community".
"We have sold, by default, one of our strategic assets and I don't know what can be done about it.
"The way the deal was done, basically, is sneaky.
"We [the council] are the community's representatives.
"I don't see there was any urgent ... need for capital that precluded the directors advising the sole shareholders and undertaking an appropriate consultation process."
Cr van Uden said the benefits gained from a strategic alliance "could have been generated without a sell of shares of our asset" and if AIA was successful in gaining 35%, "it gives them a great deal more control".
"It's not a majority in terms of ownership of the company. We [the community] would still be the majority shareholder, but ... if that second phase is agreed to, that will define seats on the board.
"It takes away our ability, as the sole shareholder, to make a special resolution ... [that] may be something about issuing more shares, or changing the constitution."
She said her concerns were not "about Auckland" and it was "not necessarily" an opposition to AIA buying the shares, but about diluting the ownership of the community's strategic asset.
"I don't want to criticise their motivation, but the bottom line for me is I do not see the urgency that [justified] the board of directors [going] about this in a sneaky way.
"I think they have been clever, but in the process of being clever ... I think they have been sly.
"While they may technically be OK, morally they are not.
"The process has been inappropriate when you consider this is this community's strategic asset we are talking about."
While there were "undoubtedly" benefits from reducing debt, Cr van Uden questioned if it weighed up against selling almost 25% of the asset.
"We are a key destination in New Zealand; surely we could leverage off that?"Cr van Uden said before the next shares were released, the council would "thoroughly" consult the community to ascertain if the community wanted its ownership in the airport "further diluted".
