Overseas investment decision for case 201220007 - Vodafone New Zealand Limited

An overseas investment in sensitive land, being the Applicant's acquisition of rights or interests in 100.0% of the shares of TelstraClear Limited which owns or controls:

• a leasehold interest in 0.4584 hectares of land at 43 Ihakara Street, Kapiti Coast, Wellington; and
• a freehold interest in 0.6447 hectares of land at 952 Great South Road, Auckland.

An overseas investment in significant business assets, being the Applicant's acquisition of rights or interests in 100.0% of the shares of TelstraClear Limited, the consideration of which exceeds $100m.

Vodafone New Zealand Limited (“Vodafone NZ”) proposes to acquire up to 100% of the shares in TelstraClear Limited. Given the complementary nature of the two businesses, Vodafone NZ aims through the Investment to:

• provide a better consumer broadband offering;
• increase the range of products and services it is able to provide to business customers, in particular data management, storage and security;
• increase its wireless spectrum allocation, and improve customer experience by delivering greater capacity; anrealise cost synergies.

The overseas investment transaction has satisfied the criteria in sections 16 and 18 of the Overseas Investment Act 2005. The 'benefit to New Zealand' criterion was satisfied by particular reference to the following factors:

Overseas Investment Act 2005
17(2)(a)(iv) – Greater efficiencies or productivity/enhanced domestic services

Overseas Investment Regulations 2005
28(e) – Previous investments