18 January 2013
Treasury Releases Its Crown Portfolio Performance Report
The Treasury’s Crown Ownership Monitoring Unit (COMU), today published the third edition of its Annual Portfolio Report.
The report covers the performance of 44 government-owned enterprises that are worth more than $100 billion in total and
represent more than 40% of the Crown’s assets. The report splits its analysis into three parts that cover
• entities that invest Crown funds (called Crown financial institutions or CFIs),
• companies that have a commercial priority, and
• multiple-objective entities such as Crown Research Institutes and the Lotteries Commission.
The report notes that the Crown’s portfolio of commercial and financial investments made a modest return in the year to
30 June 2012, in the context of uncertain business environments.
For the Crown financial institutions, strong gains from fixed-interest securities offset poor equity market performance
so that overall they made modest returns. However, the funds performed well relative to benchmarks, indicating that
active investment strategies have added value.
In the commercial priority group of companies, total shareholder return and dividend yield were both lower than in
2010/11. In addition to the challenging business conditions unfavourable hydrological conditions also adversely affected
portfolio performance because the portfolio has a large weighting of energy sector companies.
COMU Deputy Secretary Andrew Turner said: “Given the tight fiscal position that New Zealand faces in the context of
ongoing challenges in the economic environment, efficient and effective balance sheet management is critical. The
ability of commercially-focused companies and CFIs to create value and then, where appropriate, make that available for
government priorities is more important than ever.”
Publishing the report is consistent with COMU’s role in promoting transparency through public disclosure initiatives.
The purpose of the Annual Portfolio Report (APR) is to provide further disclosure, in combination with stronger
information flows from the enterprises themselves.
The report is on the COMU website: www.comu.govt.nz/publications/annual-portfolio-report/.
ENDS