Key urged to help F&P

Prime Minister John Key should follow through on his pledge to bail out struggling New Zealand businesses by backing iconic brand Fisher & Paykel Appliances, says New Zealand Shareholders Association chairman Bruce Sheppard.

Mr Sheppard said Fisher & Paykel was an iconic New Zealand company that had to be kept afloat.

Mr Key revealed last month treasury had done "scoping work" on companies that might need to be bailed out but did not say who had been identified.

"If we got into a situation where a New Zealand corporate could not raise money in its own name, could not receive the level of funding that was required from the banks and we deemed it to be in the best interests of the country for the Government to step in and provide those funds on a temporary basis.
"There is a limited group of corporates which would sit within that quarter," Mr Key said.

Mr Sheppard said as an iconic New Zealand company that employed New Zealanders and had considerable intellectual property in New Zealand, Fisher & Paykel fitted the bill.

Mr Key could not be reached for comment.  However, he said last month that preliminary advice from Treasury on the state of the lending market was that banks were still lending money, albeit more conservatively than last year.

The advice was that the sector was working more effectively than in either the United States or Britain.

- © Fairfax NZ News