Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

ACC, Super Fund lose money in coal firm collapse

Updated at 2:34 pm on 15 December 2010

Some $27 million of public money has been lost with the collapse of Pike River Coal.

Pike River Coal went into receivership on Monday following an explosion at the West Coast mine on 19 November which killed 29 workers and curtailed all production.

The company is now almost worthless.

The largest shareholder and biggest loser is listed company New Zealand Oil and Gas, owed about $64 million.

Another shareholder is the Accident Compensation Corporation which has about 17 million shares.

It says this brought the organisation a $20.3 million loss, based on an average purchase price of $1.04 cents a share. However, it says this is well under 1% of its total investment portfolio.

Another public investor is the New Zealand Superannuation Fund, with just under six million shares and a holding in options. The fund says this was worth $6.7 million.

Other big shareholders to lose money include the Australian subsidiary of an Indian mining firm and a Singaporean investment company.

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