3 November 2000
Watercare Services

The shareholders of Watercare Services, Auckland’s bulk water supplier and sewage treatment company, are will be seeking to appoint further Directors to the Board.

Watercare Services, which is the largest company in the water and wastewater industry in NZ, is jointly owned by the city and district councils of Auckland, Manukau, North Shore, Papakura, Rodney and Waitakere. . Watercare is governed by an independent Board of Directors, appointed by tThe Shareholders Representative Group, which consists of representatives from the six ownership councils, appoints an independent Board of Directors to govern Watercare..

The year to 30 June 2000 was the first full financial year under the ownership of the six councils. The annual review of the Board has recently been undertaken.

Dr Bruce Hucker, Deputy Mayor of Auckland City, the Chair of the Shareholders Representative Group said, “Because of the complex issues facing Watercare over the foreseeable future, a recommendation of the review is to increase the number of directors from seven to eight.”

Appointments to the Board are for a period of three years and are established so that each year at least two directors retire from the Board, although they are still eligible for re-election.

Dr Hucker says that by advertising for directors, the Shareholders Representative Group are putting in place a process to ascertain interest in the marketplace while at the same time discussing with the Board whether any existing directors will be retiring at this stage and not standing for re-election.. Any retirement vacancies can then also be filled by this recruitment exercise.

“We are particularly seeking interested candidates with engineering, iwi and customer relations, and financial skills,” Dr Hucker said.

Watercare has embarked on the largest one-off capital expansion phase in its history. The intensive capital expenditure programme over the next four years will cause debt to increase to around $500 million from the current debt of $216.4 million and the asset base to expand to around $1.5 billion.

Watercare is in the process of building new infrastructural assets to cater for the growing Auckland region. Project Manukau (the upgrade of the Mangere Wastewater Treatment Plant) is currently New Zealand’s largest construction project and, at the time of commissioning, Project Waikato will be the world’s largest plant using ultrafiltration membranes.

“We are particularly looking for people who have engineering, iwi and customer relations or financial reporting skills,” Dr Hucker said.

The year to 20 June 2000 was the first full financial year under the ownership of the six councils. The company met its financial targets and most of its objectives under the Statement of Corporate Intent, the contract between the company and its shareholders.

ENDS

For more information contact:

Councillor Bruce Hucker, tel: 025 722 294

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