National Mail, New Zealand, to sell off assets

National Mail directors have accepted the inevitable and are dismantling the dormant New Zealand company.
Chairman Richard Flower told about 20 shareholders at a low-key annual meeting that efforts to find a buyer for the company as a going concern had failed, but two overseas parties were interested in some of the company’s assets, which could be worth NZ$1 million.
The assets include a computerised mail-sorting machine, which cost the company more than NZ$1 million, the remnants of the company’s fleet of motor scooters and about 650 blue
mailboxes.
The money from any asset sales would be added to the NZ$1 .8 million in cash the
firm has in the bank and returned to shareholders, although the longer it takes to find a buyer, the less the company’s 400 shareholders will receive.
Flower said directors had decided the company’s best option was to sell its assets
and look for a party, which will pay to take over its listed shell status on the stock
exchange, which could be worth another NZ$500,000.
National Mail had come close to attracting investment from an international industry player late last year – understood to be IPO – but the deal’s failure forced directors to close the mail operations rather than continue to lose money. The company has since laid
off 195 of its 200 staff, and the remaining employees will leave within the next few weeks.