Straight from Ripley's Believe it or Not: Michael Fay made his money flogging off New Zealand assets and is now trying to play the keep it Kiwi card to rally local support for his cheaper bid for Crafar Farms
The fight over the Crafar Farms has already had more twists and turns than a cheap novel.
However, the battle for the hearts and minds of the New Zealand public in the long-running saga about who will get to purchase the 16 central North Island dairy farms, once farmed by the Crafar Family, has taken another interesting spin.
In the red corner we have Chinese company Shanghai Pengxin’s who’s successful bid to buy the Crafar dairy farms will – according to critics – see New Zealanders left as little more than peasant tenants in their own country. Meanwhile, in the blue corner we have a rival group of local buyers, including Maori – led by businessman and infamous state asset stripper and seller Sir Michael Fay.
Fay’s group is offering less for the farms, but pushing the patriotic theme – almost to the brink of xenophobia – and is now threatening to sue the Overseas Investment Office should the Chinese bid gain approval.
The farms, which total nearly 8000 hectares, have been in receivership for more than two years.
Pengxin’s offer is understood to between $210 million and $220 million, while Fay’s group has offered $171.5m.
This saga has already seen the almost unbelievable transformation of Michael Fay from the biggest flogger of NZ assets to now become the cheerleader for keeping it Kiwi.
And now the masters of the dark arts – known as public relations – have entered the debate in an effort to influence the court of public opinion.
But making this even more interesting is that the rival spin doctors were once former colleagues and in an Auckland-based PR firm. Former founding partners of Star PR; Alan McDonald and Cedric Allen have now ended up on opposite sides of the fence in the Crafar saga—with McDonald championing Fay’s cause; while Allen is running the Chinese buyers’ PR campaign.
Add into the mix politicians – doing their best to scratch New Zealanders’ none too deep racist itch about the yellow peril, while claiming they are not – preying over the corpse of the Crafar deal like vultures.
Another delicious irony is that Landcorp, an SOE the country’s biggest corporate farmer, has confirmed it is in talks with Pengxin to run the farms if the Chinese offer is successful.
Whatever happens in the next week or so in regards to the OIO decision, there is little doubt we will be hearing a whole lot more about the Crafar Farms in the next couple of months.
Keep tuned, as this saga is going to keep spinning for some time yet!