Napier Port is one of five main ports on the coastal shipping route of New Zealand. As a strategic gateway for regional produce, it is critical that the port provides an effective and efficient operation to the surrounding Hawkes Bay economy whilst also supporting the growing tourism industry in the area.
To meet growing demand, Napier Port required additional funds to establish a ‘6 Wharf’ development that would allow the expansion of facilities to support growing cargo volumes and accommodate bigger vessels arriving and departing the port including cruise liners. The redevelopment would also provide greater resilience capabilities, most especially in the event of a natural disaster.
Adopting a two-staged approach, GHD Advisory provided a comprehensive due diligence and risk identification report for the master plan including;
- Our understanding of the marine and landside opportunities and constraints affecting the ports and other facilities - invaluable in developing a robust overview of how to optimise the port and its operations.
- Due diligence services to review existing Asset Management Plans and documentation to enable an update of capital expenditure forecasts for fixed assets and a mobile port plant.
- Identified areas of potential value upside such as capacity enhancement, optimal investment paths and development opportunities.
- GHD Advisory’s vendor engineering due diligence review provided capacity planning, asset management plans, capital expenditure forecasts reviews, seismic risk reviews, and vendor engineering due diligence information to inform and support the IPO review process.
The assessment on the above key aspects enabled the Napier Port to list on the NZX, achieving $2.60 per share (at the top of the range) through an IPO for 45% of the port company with new shareholders seeing the value of their investment rise significantly within the first hours of trading. The IPO raised $234 million enabling the master plan to go forward.