	government to sell pct of air new zealand the new zealand government will sell pct of state owned air new zealand ltd to the public civil aviation minister richard prebble said prebble said in a statement the government would appoint an adviser to help it decide how the shares should be sold the timing of any sales and the price clearly there will be a need to gauge the effect of other proposed share issues so as to enter the market at the best opportunity prebble said we are in no particular rush to sell our shares in air new zealand he said our aim is to maximise the benefit to the taxpayer if that means waiting for a while then so be it prebble said he said air new zealand expects to release its results soon for the year to march he said he was confident it would post an excellent profit prebble said air new zealand was successful but its ability to prosper in future was hampered by its wholly government owned status prebble said access to new sources of capital would increase its ability to expand and develop this sale announcement follows the public float in march of around pct of the bank of new zealand ltd the government has said it will also float part of the capital of other state owned operations including dfc new zealand ltd formerly development finance corp of new zealand ltd and petroleum corp of new zealand ltd reuter 
