Christchurch City Council has appointed Australian investment bank Macquarie to conduct an ownership review of the city’s fibre broadband company, Enable, reigniting a fierce and long-running debate over asset sales.
The move has prompted a familiar backlash from critics who argue the process lacks a democratic mandate, while supporters insist a review is necessary as the council grapples with escalating debt and rising rates. The fibre network, valued at approximately $900 million, is currently 100 per cent owned by the council through its holding company, Christchurch City Holdings Ltd (CCHL).
For many Christchurch residents, the announcement induces a sense of deja vu. It comes just months after a 2023 report from advisory firm Northington Partners first suggested a major shake-up of the city’s multi-billion-dollar commercial assets, which also include shareholdings in Lyttelton Port and Christchurch Airport.
A familiar debate reignited
The core of the issue is a conflict between political promises and fiscal pressure. The council is facing a significant debt burden, but the sale of strategic assets, often referred to as 'the family silver', remains deeply unpopular with a large segment of the electorate.
Opponents of the review claim the council has no mandate from voters to explore a sale, pointing to pre-election pledges to retain the assets. Proponents, however, argue the council cannot continue to defer serious questions about how its capital is allocated while financial pressures mount. The debate mirrors previous attempts to address the city’s finances, which have often become paralysed by political opposition. This recurring cycle of proposing reviews, facing public resistance, and ultimately stalling has become a case study in municipal governance challenges. Similar issues have surfaced in Pierce County, where unincorporated communities explore cityhood for greater funding.
The $2.66 billion debt question
The financial backdrop to the review is stark. According to its own reports, Christchurch City Council’s gross debt has reached $2.66 billion. Servicing this debt costs ratepayers $138 million annually, which equates to 20 cents of every dollar collected in rates.
The council's 2025 Annual Report revealed it had breached its own debt servicing benchmark in 2020, 2024, and 2025, largely due to interest costs on money borrowed for its holding company, CCHL. While the council’s net debt to total revenue ratio has not yet breached its self-imposed 285 per cent limit, the trajectory has caused concern.
Mayor Phil Mauger, who was elected in 2022 on a promise that he “wouldn’t sell the family silver”, has since suggested a strategy of 'asset recycling'. In 2023, he floated the idea of selling “half of something and recycle that money” into other assets to reduce the city’s geographic concentration risk, a concern also highlighted in the Northington Partners review. These discussions come as the council's holding company weighs other major investments.
A history of political paralysis
The current review is the latest chapter in a story that spans more than a decade. In the early 2010s, a previous council voted to place Enable on its strategic assets list, a move designed to protect it from sale by requiring public consultation before any change in ownership.
During that same period, the council had a policy to sell $600 million worth of assets to manage its finances, but a planned sale of maintenance contractor City Care failed to attract a suitable buyer, and the programme stalled. This history highlights the practical and political difficulties of divesting council-owned entities.
The pattern was repeated after the 2022 election. Despite Mayor Mauger’s campaign pledge, he and nine councillors commissioned the Northington Partners review within months of taking office, putting asset sales firmly back on the agenda and sparking criticism from groups like youth advocates who oppose short-sighted plans.
What is Enable?
Enable Networks is the company responsible for delivering fibre broadband infrastructure across Christchurch, as well as the neighbouring Waimakariri and Selwyn districts. Its establishment was heavily supported by the government’s Ultra-Fast Broadband (UFB) initiative, a nationwide project to improve New Zealand's internet infrastructure.
As part of the UFB rollout, Crown Fibre Holdings (now Crown Infrastructure Partners) funded approximately 67 per cent of the network's initial construction costs. Today, Enable operates as a regulated utility, with its returns capped by the Commerce Commission. For the 2024 disclosure year, its weighted average cost of capital (WACC) was determined at 7.87 per cent.
This regulated, utility-like nature makes it an attractive and predictable asset for institutional infrastructure investors. Proponents of a sale argue that ratepayers currently carry all the risk for a $900 million asset in a specialised, fast-moving sector where the council has no specific expertise. They contend that selling a partial or full stake could free up hundreds of millions of dollars to pay down debt or invest in core council services, a debate that has seen other council decisions delayed.
As the Macquarie review gets underway, the fundamental question remains a political one for Christchurch. The process will test whether the city's leaders can navigate the deeply entrenched opposition to asset sales or if the debate will once again result in a stalemate, leaving the city's balance sheet unchanged.
