Company Profile

MainPower is one of a number of community owned Lines Companies in New Zealand.

MainPower (the North Canterbury Electric Power Board as it was then known) came into existence on the 26th of February 1927.

The enactment of the Energy Companies Act 1992 required MainPower to become a company with a clear ownership structure and a Company Establishment Plan was developed for this purpose.

On the 24th of October 1995, a final decision on the company structure was made. MainPower's Qualifying Customers would be entitled to 80% of the MainPower Trust Fund including the ordinary shares that the Trust held in MainPower. The community as a whole would be entitled to the remaining 20%.

The second MainPower Trust was established on the 24th of October 1995 to hold in trust the Qualifying Customers' and community's entitlement until such time as a distribution was made, and this is the situation right through to the present day.

By law, the MainPower Trust must be wound up no later than the 25th of April 2073. The MainPower Trust assets will, unless there has been a distribution and the Trust wound up at an earlier date, vest in a charitable trust that will be known as the MainPower Foundation. Six of the seven Trustees of this Trust will be appointed jointly by the Waimakariri, Hurunui and Kaikoura District Councils. MainPower will appoint the seventh Trustee.

The MainPower Trust holds all of the ordinary shares in MainPower. It also has other cash investments.

MainPower has also invested in a number of subsidiary and associate companies:

Location http://www.mainpower.co.nz/index.cfm/1,100,249,0,html