Covid-19 contributes to Ngāi Tahu Holdings $25.7m loss

Tuesday, 10 November 2020

Ngāi Tahu Tourism has gradually been reopening the 10 businesses it mothballed as the Covid-19 border closures cut off the supply of international tourists they relied heavily on.

Ngāi Tahu Holdings has taken a major hit from Covid-19 and posted a $25.7 million loss.

Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu’s annual report for the financial year ended 30 June said the group’s equity had decreased by $90.7m to $1.52b, and its deficit had increased $64.6m to $103.5m from last year,

Ngāi Tahu Holdings chair Mark Tume said the lack of international visitors had hit their tourism arm hard, and the asset value of businesses had also been reduced due to Covid-19.

“We know the next year will also be difficult, but we are confident that the resilience of our businesses and investment portfolios will meet the challenge.”

Ngāi Tahu’s tourism businesses made a $6.5m operating loss for the last financial year. Franz Josef Glacier Guides resumed after being closed for a period when international visitors stopped coming and together with the Franz Josef Glacier Hot Pools, it received a $500,000 grant from the Government’s strategic tourism assets fund.

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Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern receives gifts life jackets from Ngai Tahu Tourism chief executive Quinton Hall at Shotover Jet in 2018. Hall was among more than 300 kaimahi to lose their jobs as a result of restructuring,

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New Zealand had about 20,000 tourism businesses pre-Covid and about 126 key ones received more than $270m in grants and loans to save them from possible closure.

Ngāi Tahu Property showed a surplus of just under $30m, followed by seafood ($17.2m) and forestry ($5m).

The biggest losses were experienced by Oha Honey ($21.6m), followed by tourism ($6.5m), farming ($2.3m) and Ngāi Tahu Capital ($100,000).

“With the borders closed and the country in lockdown, we were forced to act quickly and temporarily pause 10 of our 11 Ngāi Tahu Tourism businesses, which had a major impact on revenue and forced a significant restructure of our operations,” Tume said.

That restructuring resulting in kaimahi (staff) being reduced by more than 300 to just 39, although numbers have since ramped up to 148 as domestic travel increased.

Ngāi Tahu Tourism also received $1.95m in grants from the Government’s strategic tourism assets protection programme for four of its attractions, including the National Kiwi Hatchery in Rotorua and the Dark Sky Project in Tekapo.

Tume said the action already taken by Ngāi Tahu Holdings was positioning the businesses for improved results and the All Blacks Experience, employing 17 people, opens in Auckland next month.

Ngāi Tahu has more than 68,000 registered whānau and this year it will have $60.4m to distribute to the charitable trust that funds tribal programmes, down $6.8m on 2019.

In the annual report Kaiwhakahaere Lisa Tumahai said they would need to review what programmes and support could be provided in the coming years, but budget for support was still significant and would continue through the recovery phase of the pandemic.

“We now have a greater focus on how we can target other funding at both the rūnanga and iwi levels, including collaborating with the Crown to achieve whānau outcomes.

“Regional development continues to be a top priority, even with our financial constraints, and this push to empower and enable our regions is woven throughout all our workstreams,” Tumahai said.