The Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (Cera) has rejected anonymous allegations Fletcher Building and the Government are jointly benefiting from the demolition and rebuilding of Christchurch.
In an email obtained by the Otago Daily Times yesterday, Cera's manager of demolitions, Warwick Isaacs, said, "You may in recent days have received a malicious email which makes a number of baseless assertions about the relationship between the Government, Cera and Fletcher Building."
"One of the assertions is that the Government is the largest shareholder in Fletcher Building, and therefore stands to benefit from any recovery work it undertakes. This is incorrect."
The email claimed the Reserve Bank of New Zealand had bought Fletchers and it had become a state-owned enterprise, through the stake held by New Zealand Central Securities Depository Ltd, a custodian company owned by the Reserve Bank.
Mr Isaacs said "in reality" the New Zealand Central Securities Depository was a nominee company through which local and international institutions held shares in a range of companies, one being Fletcher Building.
"It is an absolutely standard structure, common worldwide, and which has been in place for over 20 years," he said.
Through a real-time settlement system, the equity purchasers, some with large offshore funds, use an account which records securities lodged with New Zealand Central Securities Depository.
The depository, as the custodian, becomes the legal owner of the securities on the relevant register and holds securities on behalf of the equities buyer, the beneficial owner.
"The inventory of securities held in the depository currently stands at around $92 billion," Mr Isaacs said.
