‘Great opportunity’ for company

Barnes was regarded as a fixer who also wanted to move on to bigger and greater things.

“If he’s not going to build anything new it could be to merge. Changes for Contact are more than just operational, they’re strategic as well,” Swanepoel said.

Contact announced the closure of its Otahuhu 400MW gas-fired power plant. It had not been used in tandem with its power stations in Taranaki for well over a year as a glut of power, mainly from expanded renewable supplies, had led to weak prices. Bruce Beeren, who remained on the Contact board after leaving Origin, would have been up for re-election rather than Pryke, his departure at the annual meeting was announced yesterday, exposing Pryke to an election by shareholders with whom he has had a fractious relationship.

Pryke was criticised for recommending a 2001 takeover offer by EME and for supporting the 2006 proposal from Origin to merge with

Mighty River Power is closing its Auckland gas-fired unit at Southdown and Genesis Energy plans to take out its 500MW capacity coal units at Huntly in 2018.

While Barnes said he expected competition to keep a lid on prices in the near term, Swanepoel said that when Huntly closed supply would tighten and prices would go up.

The move away from baseload gas and coal-fired generation sent a strong signal to electricity companies to build a quickstart peaker plant, said Swanepoel.

Contact Energy shares rose 1.6 per cent to close at $5.24. Contact, as well as his aggressive pursuit of higher directors’ fees at various times in the 2000s and for supporting related party transactions with Origin, such as the purchase of the Rockgas LPG business.

Asked about his reputation with investors, Pryke said: “I look back on those things, particularly in the earlier days, there are some things one wouldn’t do the same way.”

That included the way he had