The New Zealand stock exchange has reported this afternoon that it has sold out of shares in the newly floated Mighty River Power company.
The company, which is being partially privatized as part of the government’s asset sales strategy, was listed on the exchange for the first time today, but overwhelming demand for shares lead to their swift depletion just hours after they went on offer at 12:30pm.
“We have no more,” said exchange CEO Tim Bennett. “We apologise for any inconvenience this might cause investors, and we are working tirelessly to get shares back in stock as quickly as possible.”
In the meantime, he said, the stock exchange would be asking disappointed customers if they’d prefer to buy shares in Renaissance Corporation or Wellington Drive Technologies, both of which are currently being offered at half price.
“We understand that they mightn’t be what you’re looking for,” he said, “but we do have some very good deals going on other shares.”
Finance Minister Bill English, who was at the exchange for the listing of Mighty River Power today, said he was pleased to see there was enough demand for the shares to sell out, but was concerned that foul play might be involved in their sudden disappearance.
“Well look, my understanding was that about 60 or so million shares have been sold today,” he said. “But what concerns me is that we were informed before going to market that we had tens and tens of millions more than that. So at this point, we basically have to step back and ask, have we made an error in our calculations, or have some shares perhaps been stolen?”
He said he would be investigating reports that Labour and Greens leaders David Shearer and Russel Norman were seen hovering outside the exchange in Wellington this morning.