Foreign Control – Key Facts

Foreign Direct Investment from International Investment Position, National Accounts, Statistics New Zealand, InfoShare series IIP088AA. GDP from National Accounts, Statistics New Zealand, InfoShare series SNE038AA.

As of March 2023, foreign investors owned an estimated 34% of the value of all corporate equity (shareholdings) and 46.3% of privately owned equity of corporate enterprises in New Zealand, including shares not listed on the stock exchange. This latter figure is 16 percentage points higher than 2013, and 18 percentage points higher than 2007 (the first year comparable data is available).

Foreign owners controlled 37.8% of shares listed on the New Zealand Stock Exchange in 2021. This represented a drop of 1.5 percentage points from 2020’s figure of 39.3%, which was the highest since 2006, but was slightly higher than the average of 36.2% for the decade 2012-2021. Foreign ownership of the NZSE was 19% in 1989; it was estimated to be below 5% in 1986. It peaked in 1996-97 at 61%.

1986, 1987: “Brian Gaynor: New Zealanders buy back their sharemarket“, New Zealand Herald, 19 October 2013; and “Brian Gaynor: Potential problems in NZX’s high level of foreign investment“, New Zealand Herald, 31 January 2015; 1989-1997: “Corporate Governance Research on New Zealand Listed Companies”, by Mark Fox, Gordon Walker and Alma Pekmezovic, Arizona Journal of International & Comparative Law Vol. 29, No. 1, 2012, Table 4, p.16. 1997-2004: “Savings and the Equity Market” – JBWere submission to the Savings Working Group, November 2010, p.2. 2005-2020: Equity Ownership Survey – New Zealand 2020, JBWere, 12 December 2020, p.3, “Ownership structure of NZX primary listed stocks since 2005“. 2021: Equity Ownership Survey New Zealand 2021, JBWere, shared directly to the author.

Foreign investors owned $546.8 billion of net wealth in New Zealand, which is 17.9% of the country’s commercial net value, totalled at $3.1 trillion in March 2023. They owned 20.6% of private net wealth. Total wealth comprises housing, land, other property, plant, equipment, and financial assets owned directly or indirectly by households, government, non-profit organisations, and foreign investors. New Zealand residents owned $353.8 billion of investments abroad. (These totals exclude shared natural wealth such as rivers, and human and social capital.)

Wealth is calculated from Statistics New Zealand’s Annual Balance Sheets 2007-23 (provisional), and the corporate equity estimates (which do not include households’ equity in unincorporated enterprises) are calculated from equity data from the same source, eliminating double-counting of share value by including only holdings by government, households, overseas residents, and non-profit institutions serving households.

In 2024, the Overseas Investment Office (OIO) approved new foreign investment totalling $7.5 billion. This is a significant drop from the $18.5 billion in 2023. The average for the decade 2015-2024 was $13.1 billion. Of the $7.5 billion, $4.7 billion was sales from one overseas company to another or from one New Zealand part-owner to another ($9.3 billion on average over the decade 2015-2024). Only company takeovers involving $100 million or more need OIO approval, except those involving land or fishing quotas. For private Australian investors the threshold was $618 million in 2024, and is adjusted upwards each year for inflation: it is $650 million in 2025. For investors covered by the following trade and investment agreements, there is a $200 million threshold: the CPTPP Agreement, the Korea FTA, ANZTEC (the agreement with Taiwan), the Hong Kong CEP, the China FTA, the PACER Plus Agreement, the U.K. FTA and the EU FTA. There is a lower threshold for government-owned investors. Until 1999, the threshold was $10 million; it then became $50 million, and from August 2005 the government increased it to $100 million.

Overseas Investment Commission and Overseas Investment Office. In earlier years, statistical releases provided summaries of data. Until 2019 data for each year was now supplied with the release of December decision sheets, however in 2020-2021 it has been supplied with the release of June decision sheets. It is now available via tables at: https://www.linz.govt.nz/our-work/overseas-investment-regulation/overseas-investment-information-dashboards/overseas-investment-pathways-data.

Threshold for Australian investments: see
https://gazette.govt.nz/notice/id/2024-go3664,
https://gazette.govt.nz/notice/id/2023-go3254
and https://www.linz.govt.nz/news/2024-07/update-threshold-australian-investors.  

For thresholds for the other  trade and investment agreements see Subpart 2 of the Overseas Investment Regulations.

Note that the OIO suppresses some values. In 2017, final totals were suppressed and were estimated by us. The actual values were supplied in the December 2018 release.

In 2024, the OIO approved the sale of 149,185 hectares of freehold land or interests in land (such as leasing or forestry rights) to foreigners. This is a substantial increase on 2023, when the sale of 49,261 hectares was approved, but it is near the average for the decade 2015-2024 of 141,564 hectares. In 2024, 72,254 hectares of the freehold land or interests in land were from one foreign investor to another or one New Zealand part-owner to another.

Overseas Investment Commission and Overseas Investment Office.

Statistics on sales of land to overseas interests are poorly recorded and incomplete. Our best estimate is that in 2011 at least 8.7 percent of New Zealand farmland including plantation forestry, or 1.3 million hectares, was foreign owned or controlled. It may be higher. Radio New Zealand identified the one hundred largest private landowners in 2019. Forestry companies dominated the list. Radio New Zealand estimated that “at least 3.3 percent of New Zealand’s land is foreign owned.” The percentage of farmland would be almost double: in 2018, 13.7 million hectares were in farmland out of New Zealand’s total land area of 26.7 million hectares. However, that does not include smaller landowners, or the widespread overseas ownership of leases, forestry cutting rights and other forms of control of the land.

“Overseas Ownership Of Land: Far Greater Than The 1% The PM Claims”, by Bill Rosenberg, 2012

Farm land area from Statistics New Zealand’s Agriculture Production Survey, InfoShare series AGR001AA.

“Green Rush: Foreign forestry companies NZ’s biggest landowners”, by Kate Newton and Guyon Espiner, 10 October 2019, Radio NZ.

Statistics NZ data shows the countries where $100m or more in foreign direct investment was based as of March 2024 as being, in decreasing order: Australia, the USA, Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong, Canada, the UK, the Netherlands, the Cayman Islands, Switzerland, the British Virgin Islands, China, Germany, France, Ireland, Sweden, India and Luxembourg (though the investments from some countries have been suppressed by Stats NZ). These accounted for 94.6% of foreign direct investment in New Zealand. Australia alone accounts for $84.6 billion of the $158.3 billion total — 53.5%.

International Investment Position, Statistics New Zealand: Directional basis stock of direct investment by country (Annual-Mar), InfoShare series IIP081AA. Note that these statistics are compiled on a different basis from those also from Statistics New Zealand above, so the total does not match. These are compiled on a “directional” basis, based on ultimate nationality of ownership; the above are on a “balance sheet” basis, based on residency of the company. Industry statistics below are also compiled on a directional basis.

Mallika Kelkar. (2011). “The ultimate sources of foreign direct investment (p. 19). Presented at the New Zealand Association of Economists (NZAE) Conference, Wellington, New Zealand. Retrieved from http://archive.stats.govt.nz/methods/research-papers/nzae/nzae-2011/ultimate-sources-foreign-direct-investment.aspx

Hong Kong, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands and Luxembourg are tax havens; in the year to March 2024, FDI from these companies totalled $12.8 billion. The Netherlands, Singapore, Switzerland and Ireland are also used to avoid tax, responsible for a further $16.7 billion in FDI. A Statistics New Zealand study showed that in 2010, large proportions of the foreign direct investment from the Netherlands, Singapore, Hong Kong and tax havens was in fact from other countries, led by the UK, US, Germany and Canada. In 2024, other tax havens with investments in New Zealand companies include the Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Cyprus, Denmark, the Isle of Man, the UAE and Vanuatu. The value of all their holdings has been suppressed as “confidential.”

Bermuda showed a negative investment in New Zealand companies between 2009 and 2011, and data released in 2015 showed it was negative up to 2015 (when it was negative $1.8 billion), but all values since 2004 (when it had $1.85 billion) have now been suppressed. Germany has also showed negative investment from 2013 to 2017, and Fiji since 2002. Ireland’s ownership went negative in 2017 following steadily falling direct investment, but recovered in 2023 and is now $587 million. Negative investment suggests that the companies may have been loaded with debt by their owners — which can be a tax avoidance mechanism — or are technically insolvent.

Tax havens are identified from taxhavens.org and oxfam.org

The financial and insurance services sector, which includes the four big Australian owned banks, accounted for by far the biggest part of foreign ownership of New Zealand companies by industry in March 2024, with $68.1 billion (43.0%). Next was manufacturing at $23.0 billion (14.5%). Other industries with more than $1 billion of foreign investment were, in decreasing size: wholesale trade; agriculture, forestry, and fishing; rental, hiring, and real estate services; retail trade; professional, scientific, and technical services; health care and social assistance; information media and telecommunications; mining; accommodation and food services; transport, postal, and warehousing; electricity, gas, water, and waste services. $14.6 billion was unable to be allocated to an industry because of the way foreign direct investment is estimated, or was suppressed as being confidential. The mining industry represented the biggest proportional increase since 2022, increasing from $1.2 billion to $2.1 billion in two years, while electricity, gas, water, and waste services nearly halved over the same period, dropping from $2.6 billion to $1.5 billion. In dollar terms, finance and insurance services had by far the largest increase, rising by $14.7 billion in the two years.

Source: International Investment Position, Directional basis stock of direct investment by industry (Annual-Mar), InfoShare series IIP080AA – Statistics New Zealand. Like the country statistics (see above), these are compiled on a directional basis.

Transnational corporations (TNCs) make massive profits out of New Zealand, though the rates of profit have declined slightly in recent years. In the year to March 2024, the profits were $11.1 billion, a slight decline on $12.2 billion in 2023. Over the last decade, TNC profits have averaged $9.9 billion, more than the combined value of NZ exports of milk powder, wool and vegetables ($9.4 billion). In the decade 2015-2024, TNCs made $99.5 billion in profits from New Zealand. They made an average rate of profit after tax on their shareholdings of 8.1% in the year to March 2024, a 1.6 percentage point decline on the previous year, and well below the 20-year average of 11.4%. Profit rates have steadily been declining over that period — the average rate of return from 2005-2009 was 13.9%; it fell to 11.6% in 2010-2014 and held steady in 2015-2019; and in the last five years it has fallen to 8.9%. On average TNCs have only reinvested 33.6% of these profits into the NZ economy in the last decade; the year to March 2024 saw just 27.8% reinvested. Foreign direct investment holdings have increased by $64.4 billion in the decade 2015-2024 — less than two-thirds as much as the profits TNCs are taking out of the country.

Balance of Payments: Current account primary income (Annual-Mar), InfoShare Series BOP058AA; Current account investment income by sector (Annual-Mar), InfoShare series BOP059AA; and Balance of payments major components (Annual-Mar), InfoShare series BOP055AA – Statistics New Zealand. Detailed sectoral income is from BPM6 Annual, Directional basis investment income by industry (Annual-Mar), InfoShare series BOP063AA.

Exports: Key Statistics Table 7.04 – Value of principal exports (excl re-exports), InfoShare series EXP005AA – Statistics New Zealand.

Another $15.1 billion left New Zealand in the year to March 2024 in the form of investment income from debt and smaller shareholdings (portfolio investment). The combined total of TNC profits and portfolio investment leaving the country in 2024 was $26.2 billion. Between 2014-2023 this averaged $18.1 billion per year, close to the combined total NZ’s number one and three largest exports — dairy and forest products — which averaged $21.2 billion per year.

Balance of Payments: Current account primary income (Annual-Mar), InfoShare Series BOP058AA; Current account investment income by sector (Annual-Mar), InfoShare series BOP059AA; and Balance of payments major components (Annual-Mar), InfoShare series BOP055AA – Statistics New Zealand. Detailed sectoral income is from BPM6 Annual, Directional basis investment income by industry (Annual-Mar), InfoShare series BOP063AA.

The $26.2 billion which left the country in the form of investment income in 2024 was more than double the $12.5 billion income that NZ received on foreign investment abroad. NZ therefore had an investment income deficit of $13.7 billion last year. We have had a permanent investment income deficit since 1989.

Exports: Key Statistics Table 7.04 – Value of principal exports (excl re-exports), InfoShare series EXP005AA – Statistics New Zealand.

In twenty-three of the thirty years from 1995 to 2024, New Zealand’s investment income deficit was bigger than the current account deficit. In 2022 our current account deficit exploded, going from $8.9 billion to $24.5 billion. This means that the current account deficit has dwarfed the investment income deficit in the last three years. However, the investment income deficit remains a major contributing factor to New Zealand’s foreign liabilities, and has also surged since 2021, more than doubling from $6.1 billion to the current $13.7 billion.

More than two out of every five dollars (43.6%) of the $26.2 billion went to the owners of New Zealand’s banking sector: $11.4 billion. The investment income from overseas ownership of the banking sector (“Deposit taking corporations,”) after taking account of its small investment income from abroad, accounted for 36.8% of New Zealand’s current account deficit in the year to March 2024: $10.2 billion compared to $27.6 billion. The finance sector, which includes banking, finance and insurance, accounted for almost two thirds- (63.3% or $16.6 billion) of the investment income going overseas.

Business demography statistics: Enterprises by industry and overseas equity 2000-21, Statistics New Zealand, available in NZ.Stat here.

Foreign investors are not great for employment – they only employ 17.1% of the workforce. This percentage has steadily declined from 20.5% in 2000. Foreign ownership does not guarantee more jobs. In fact, it can add to unemployment, as seen in cases of private equity takeovers including NZ Rail, Feltex, Cadbury’s and Dick Smith Electronics.

Foreign ownership has not improved New Zealand’s foreign debt problem either. In 1989, total private and public foreign debt stood at $47.5 billion, equivalent to about two-thirds (67.8%) of New Zealand’s Gross Domestic Product. As of March 2024, it was $363.6 billion (or $385.2 billion including derivatives), equivalent to 87.5% of New Zealand’s Gross Domestic Product (92.7% including derivatives,) despite all of the asset sales and takeovers that have occurred in that time period.

Source: Statistics New Zealand as follows:
International investment position (IIP) (Annual-Mar) – InfoShare series IIP088AA;
External lending and debt by sector and relationship (Annual-Mar) – InfoShare series IIP078AA;
International non-equity financial instruments by sector (Annual-Mar) – InfoShare series IIP074AA;

New Zealand’s A&L – Level 3 Components (Discontinued March 2000) (Annual-Mar) – InfoShare series IIP007AA;
GDP(P), Nominal, Actual, Total (Annual-Mar) – InfoShare series SNE038AA.

Campaign Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa,
P.O. Box 2258
Christchurch 8140.