$1 billion payday? Christchurch puts Enable under review

Tuesday, 3 March 2026

Christchurch City Holdings (CCHL) has put the city’s fibre network under formal review, opening the door to a possible sell-down of Enable as it looks for ways to fund port and other projects.

It will look at the value, opportunities and risks of the investment, and sits inside a wider rethink of where CCHL’s capital is best deployed across its portfolio.

The review, revealed in its interim report released last week, goes to the heart of how Christchurch pays for a major expansion of Lyttelton Port and other infrastructure projects. Selling down a mature asset like Enable could free up cash for the port, but would cut into the council’s future income and control over the broadband network.

CCHL cannot decide to sell any assets itself. Its role is to explore options and make recommendations, while the Christchurch City Council – and ultimately the public through consultation – decides whether anything in the portfolio changes hands.

Enable is worth about $459 million in CCHL’s portfolio, making it the group’s third-largest asset behind the airport and Orion. However, councillor Sam MacDonald said the company could be worth $1 billion.

The fibre network has become a steady earner, paying CCHL a $25m dividend in the June 2025 year and $20m a year in each of the previous three years – about $85m since 2022.

A recent Commerce Commission report found Enable’s returns were above its regulatory benchmark in 2023 and 2024, raising questions about whether customers are getting their fair share of the gains

The review lands just as Lyttelton Port Company prepares to go to CCHL with its plan to help fund an $800m expansion, including new berths and other infrastructure to handle growing South Island trade.

The interim report does not spell out a timetable for the Enable review or for any broader portfolio moves.

In the six months to December, CCHL reported net profit of about $82m, up from $68m a year earlier, and paid a $30m interim dividend to the council, keeping it on track for a $65m full-year payout.

Those dividends are an important income stream for the council and sit alongside more than $2b CCHL says it has returned since the mid-1990s, money that has helped fund services without relying solely on rates.

At the same time, group debt remains high at about $2.47b and capital spending has jumped as the port, power company and airport all gear up for major projects.

That financial mix is now colliding with the Government’s planned rates cap, which would require councils to hold annual rates increases between 2% and 4%, making it harder for the council to raise more from ratepayers.

That means pressure is likely to fall on CCHL to either lift dividends, take on more debt, or sell down assets such as Enable.

However it is done, someone pays. If Enable is sold, the council gets a large one-off cheque it can use to pay down debt or help fund projects, but it also gives up a steady stream of dividends, which could mean higher charges for customers over time if a new owner looks to lift returns.

If the council keeps Enable and other assets and rate caps bite, more of the squeeze falls back on households and businesses – through whatever rates increases are still allowed, higher user charges, or slower and smaller upgrades as projects are delayed.

MacDonald said the review was exactly the sort of work CCHL should be doing. “The whole idea of CCHL is that they should be continually reviewing the ownership structures of assets to make sure they’re still fit for purpose for council ownership,” he said.

“What I wouldn’t want to do is sell it and the money be wasted.

“It’s a great success story. The network’s in place and it’s got minimal debt and now we have the opportunity to capitalise on that and grow wealth for the city.”

He said recent fibre company sales in the North Island suggested Enable would be worth at least $1b based on investors paying about 13 times earnings.

But not everyone is excited about cashing in the fibre network.

“We know what happens when big corporates get their hands on public assets,” councillor Nathaniel Herz Jardine said.

“They raise prices, slash investment and let customers pick up the tab when it all falls apart. If we want to balance our books in the long term, we can’t keep running around looking for a sugar hit every two years.”