Ngāi Tahu Tourism is looking to acquire Queenstown’s KJet and related assets, including 100% of the shares in Time Tripper Ltd.
The Shotover Jet operator’s applied to the Commerce Commission for clearance for itself, or a wholly-owned subsidiary, to acquire tourism jetboating business KJet Ltd and underwater experience Time Tripper from Kawarau Jet Services Holdings.
Ngāi Tahu Tourism’s a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ngāi Tahu Holdings Corporation Ltd, owned by the Ngāi Tahu Charitable Trust.
Along with Shotover Jet, the tourism business also operates Dart River Adventures jetboating business, on the Dart River.
KJet, which operates on the Kawarau and Shotover Rivers, and Time Tripper are owned by Shaun Kelly and the Skeggs Group.
In a statement, the commission says it’ll give clearance to the proposed merger if it’s satisfied it’s unlikely to have the effect of ‘‘substantially lessening competition in the market’’.
The only other commercial jetboating operation on the Kawarau and Shotover Rivers, from Queenstown Bay, at present is operated by RealNZ.
Last year, Mountain Scene reported an offshore party was doing due diligence on KJet.
At the time Kelly said he’d been approached by several parties and was ‘‘testing the water’’.
Billed as the world’s oldest commercial jetboat company, KJet — originally Kawarau Jet Services Ltd — traces its history back to 1958.
From when Kelly bought in, the company had grown from one jetboat to a fleet of eight.
Skeggs Group bought its stake in 2011.
