New project to attract offshore capital under way

Wednesday 26th May 2010

A project to attract foreign venture capital to New Zealand are under way in a project revealed today by a progress update from Commerce Minister Simon Power on the recommendations of the Capital Markets Development Taskforce.

Investment New Zealand, the national investment promotion arm of New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, is leading the effort, in consultation with the Ministry of Economic Development, the New Zealand Venture Investment Fund, and the New Zealand Private Equity and Venture Capital Association.

The project "is working with an international investment bank on options for attracting offshore VC funding", with an update due by the end of next month.

No further detail is offered in the document, except that the initiative responds to a taskforce recommendation that encouraged NZVIF to "look for innovative ways to attract further private sector investment, especially institutional funding."

CMDT chairman Rob Cameron predicted that New Zealand's capital markets would treble in size over the next five years, owing to initiatives currently under way to revitalise the domestic investment environment.

The reportback also says a study has been commisioned to assess "the best option" for a scheme that would provide analyst research on smaller and newly listed companies.

Elsewhere, the report says Treasury's Debt Management Office has begun an evaluation of market appetite for novel debt and equity securities that it might issue on the government's behalf to widen the pool of high quality New Zealand savings and investment products.

Businesswire.co.nz

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