Air NZ fiasco players

Audrey Young does a roundup on her blog of the main players of the Air New Zealand fiasco.

Young provides a good analysis of why Murdoch concluded there was nothing wrong with Air NZ providing the transport (mainly based on UN Security Council resolutions), but correctly concludes he still should have notified Ministers so it was their decision, not his.

I’m described in the blog post as a “Peters-baiter”.  Heh I like that as a title.  As I said though it was good to have him avoid the hysterics of Goff.  Normally it has been Goff as the calm nuanced one.

There’s one aspect to this, which I am surprised business journalists have not picked up on, and it is whether Dr Cullen has become a deemed Director of Air New Zealand, and could be sued by minority shareholders.

The Companies Act makes it very very clear majority shareholders do not and can not direct the company.  Directors have a strict fidicuary duty to run the company in the best interests of the company (hence all shareholders) and not to favour one or more large shareholders.

Now here is a case where the majority shareholder has intervened to force Air New Zealand to give up highly profitable business.  This has led to a loss of future profitability for the company and hence a decline in value for minority shareholders.