Ministers dodged meeting with MRP chair Withers over share buyback

By Paul McBeth
Oct. 31 (BusinessDesk) - MightyRiverPower’s shareholding ministers Bill English and Tony Ryall dodged a phone conference with chair Joan Rivers in the lead-up to the power company announcing its share buyback after Treasury officials warned they needed to know what was going to be discussed.
Documents published by the Treasury’s Crown Ownership Monitoring Unit show Withers sought an “urgent teleconference” with the ministers on Oct. 9 to discuss an unspecified market related issue, a day before the power company announced its...
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