Fran O’Sullivan: Air NZ chair – ‘We have righted the ship’ – New Zealand Herald

Dame Therese Walsh - pictured just after getting the Air NZ role - achieved top positions in cricket and rugby administration. Photo / Dean Purcell

OPINION:

There's nothing in any governance handbook that could have prepared Dame Therese Walsh for the impact of the Covid pandemic on the national flag carrier.

This week, the Air New Zealand chair and her CEO Greg Foran announced a recapitalisation plan to raise $2.2 billion in equity and debt to restore the airline's financial health so it can take advantage of the border reopening and rebuild its international passenger networks.

Coming just a week after the pair announced that the airline would fly direct to New York City from September 17 and just sneaking in by one day ahead of Walsh's earlier "promise" that the recapitalisation would be unveiled within the first quarter of 2022 it was an auspicious moment.

Finally, Air New Zealand could get on with rebuilding its future.

Walsh says there had been earlier speculation that the Crown might seek to extend its 51 per cent holding in Air New Zealand or "nationalise" it by going to 100 per cent. But the airline board believed the company needed to be a commercially balanced organisation going forward.

She had early on asked the question on the Crown's intentions. But she says Finance Minister Grant Robertson has been resolute that the Crown would support the airline by maintaining its 51 per cent stake through the rights issue.

"They haven't deviated. They have been robust on that," she says.

Walsh is grateful for the Crown's continued debt support which critics (including this columnist) earlier described as being at a usurious rate.

She says the truth is that the airline could not get sufficient commercial debt in place early on to sustain its operations.

1 Apr, 2022 07:58 PMQuick Read

The government-supported cargo scheme has also been an absolute lifeline, she says, providing financial support to the airline to take New Zealand exports to offshore markets.

But it has been a marathon.

In February 2020, Walsh had spoken to the Institute of Directors on how governance was undergoing a transformation: "Whatever the ownership structure of organisations, accountability was on the rise" was how her speech was promoted.

A straight arrow, Dame Therese's career had seen her reach top levels in sports administration as head of New Zealand for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015, and previously as chief operating officer for the 2011 Rugby World Cup before making the switch to more traditional governance roles as chair of TVNZ and a director of the NZX.

Two years on, she is more likely to describe the governance challenges her airline boardroom has faced in quite different terms. Accountability is a given. But there have been "black swan events". "Swiss cheese risk models". These also became part of the boardroom lexicon.

Walsh has spoken before of how Air New Zealanders developed a new philosophy during the tough months when Covid was raging. "Smile with your eyes above the facemask" was how she termed it.

She was barely "five minutes" into the chair's role herself when New Zealand went into the first level 4 lockdown. Foran was also just newly in his role.

Walsh doesn't dwell overly on the past.

But it's worth recalling that when Covid struck in March 2020 and New Zealand borders shut hard, the airline had to pivot very substantially and fast.

Routes were closed. Planes parked up. Staff massively downsized and customers felt disenfranchised. Flight demand was down 95 per cent almost overnight.

But with government funding support, Air New Zealand a critical element of the country's logistics kept servicing exporters by taking their products to the world.

She acknowledges it was tough for everyone involved. Especially those who lost their jobs.

Like Foran, who makes a point of getting out in the business and working occasional shifts with staffers, Walsh also checks in with the pilots every time she flies between her home in Wellington and Auckland (where she also chairs ASB) to catch the mood.

Showing visible leadership is important to her.

The workload at director level went through the roof as the board had to schedule many more meetings.

The retail offer to shareholders has not opened yet. But early signs from the round of institutional investor meetings held by Foran and his chief financial officer Richard Thomson are promising.

There were multiple negotiations with the Crown on various recapitalisation plans. There was disappointment that the airline could not fill its boots with new capital in the early stages of the pandemic as some competitors did. But also a recognition "in hindsight" that the frustrating delays may have been to the airline's advantage.

Air New Zealand had wanted to go last August. But the Crown said it was not ready. It was a timing thing.

Robertson wrote Walsh a "letter of comfort" that pledged the Crown's continued support. Then the Delta outbreak happened and transtasman flights shut down again. Then Omicron.

The difference between then and now is that borders are opening and Covid restrictions are easing.

There are other issues which the board would obviously have been watching. Ukraine. The geopolitical stresses caused by the Russian invasion. Complexities around the US and China. Rising fuel prices and inflation which are all part of the full range of risk factors the airline and its advisers have had to balance, and are outlined in the offer documents.

Against this the airline's board has made a safe strategic bet that internationally demand is going to build up.

Walsh wonders: Will this pent-up demand result in aviation going gangbusters? Or will passengers take a more measured approach as they return to the skies?

The airline clearly hopes that this substantial recapitalisation will set it up for its future and that it does not have to return to the capital markets again, as have some other airlines that recapitalised much earlier in the Covid pandemic.

Reflecting on the past two years, Walsh says "crisis brings out the best in people".

"It's all landed in a balanced and pragmatic way.

"We have righted the ship. Let's go sailing."

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Fran O'Sullivan: Air NZ chair - 'We have righted the ship' - New Zealand Herald