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Mount Ngauruhoe (Mount Doom) from the
starting climb of Red Crater
(Courtesy Wikipedia Commons)
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A bus full of bankers from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) and other lenders bounces down a dirt track in New Zealand’s North Island to survey sites that are dividing the nation, pitting John Key’s government against Maori who have lived here for centuries.
Near the volcano that film director Peter Jackson chose as Mount Doom in his “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, the bankers view a drilling rig shipped from Iceland that has bored 1,100 meters (3,600 feet) of a geothermal-power well for state-owned Mighty River Power Ltd. The company plans to sell shares this year in the first of four initial public offerings Key says will help raise as much as NZ$7 billion ($5.7 billion), the nation’s biggest asset sale in two decades.
Near the volcano that film director Peter Jackson chose as Mount Doom in his “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, the bankers view a drilling rig shipped from Iceland that has bored 1,100 meters (3,600 feet) of a geothermal-power well for state-owned Mighty River Power Ltd. The company plans to sell shares this year in the first of four initial public offerings Key says will help raise as much as NZ$7 billion ($5.7 billion), the nation’s biggest asset sale in two decades.