Port Nicholson Trust posts first annual profit
Trust aiming to rebuild its assets to 2010 levels.
Trust aiming to rebuild its assets to 2010 levels.
Wellington Maori tribal investment vehicle Port Nicholson Block Settlement Trust has turned to an annual profit – the first since its Treaty of Waitangi settlement in 2010.
Net profit in the year to March 31 was $54,495 on $3.1 million in revenue, from a $563,763 loss a year earlier on revenue of $936,987, the trust says.
The 2015 report has been restated under new public benefit entities accounting standards, but earlier reports have not. The trust posted a loss of $1.4 million in 2014 and $3.9 million in 2013.
The trust's assets were depleted to $17.3 million in 2015, from $30.4 million at the end of 2010. The trust's commercial arm Taranaki Whānui chairman Toarangatira Pomare says the trust is aiming to rebuild its assets to 2010 levels in the next five years and this year's profit had been helped by the collective iwi selectively exercising its treaty settlement rights of first refusal and buying and selling property.
"By managing the on-sale of selected properties carefully, we achieved revenues of $1.825 million and after costs realised more than $400,000," Pomare says. "That amount will only grow as the commercial board further develops its investment profile around Wellington."
The trust is looking at buying Crown land in Wellington's CBD from the Ministry of Education, the Department of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Justice under deferred selection property rights. It says its intentions to buy Victoria University's Karori campus land and the former Mt Crawford Prison in Miramar have been well signalled.
In March, the trust's chairman Neville Baker signed a kawenata (covenant) with Waikato-Tainui, cementing its commercial relationship and opening the possibility of joint land development.
It is also developing a $100 million investment fund as part of a "significant tribal co-investment in Wellington that takes advantage of its tribal connections" which will invest in commercial properties, Mr Baker says.
The trust's first residential development in Eastbourne is on track, with three of the four houses sold off the plans. A 34-unit development at Jackson St, Petone, and a development at the former Wainuiomata High School site are also planned. Trust members will be given the option to buy the Petone land before it goes to market, while the trust will retain ownership of the Wainuiomata land with people able to acquire occupational rights.
(BusinessDesk)