Ngāi Tahu Tourism is looking to acquire Queenstown’s KJet and related assets, including 100% of the shares in Time Tripper Ltd.
The operator of Shotover Jet has applied to the Commerce Commission for clearance for itself, or a wholly owned subsidiary, to acquire tourism jetboating business KJet Ltd and underwater experience Time Tripper from Kawarau Jet Services Holdings.
Ngāi Tahu Tourism is a wholly owned subsidiary of Ngāi Tahu Holdings Corporation Ltd, owned by the Ngāi Tahu Charitable Trust.
The tourism business has interests across New Zealand but relevant to the application, it operates the Shotover Jet and Dart River Adventures jetboating businesses in Queenstown, on the Shotover and Dart Rivers.
KJet, which operates on the Kawarau and Shotover Rivers, and Time Tripper are owned by Shaun Kelly and the Skeggs Group.
In a statement, the commission said it would give clearance to a proposed merger if it was satisfied the merger was unlikely to have the effect of substantially lessening competition in the market.
The only other commercial jetboating operation on the Kawarau and Shotover Rivers, from Queenstown Bay, at present is operated by RealNZ, previously known as Real Journeys.
That business was initially operated as Thunder Jet by Neville Kelly, before being taken over by Real Journeys in 2018.
Last year, the Otago Daily Times reported an offshore party was doing due diligence on buying KJet. Shaun Kelly said at the time the company had not been for sale, but he had been approached by several parties and was "testing the water".
Billed as the world’s oldest commercial jetboat company, KJet — originally Kawarau Jet Services Ltd — traces its history back to 1958.
From when Shaun Kelly bought in, the company had grown from one jetboat to a fleet of eight.
Skeggs Group bought its stake in 2011.
