The name may say Chorus, but it’s singing alone

Chorus being Exhibit A in its list of alleged crimes. But English wasn’t biting. ‘‘If you think the result [on copper network pricing] was unpredictable, then that’s poor policy process when the provisions went in the legislation,’’ said English. That will have them wincing down at the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, where the advice came from.

‘‘You’d think Government would have enough regulatory experience to understand the implications of that sort of provision, and I don’t think they did,’’ said English, who has always regarded the UFB project as more a political than a public good investment.

‘‘It’ll take five to seven years for Chorus to wash through the minds of offshore investors,’’ he predicts.

At the end of that period, Chorus will have emerged from the UFB construction phase with both a new fibre network and a new regulatory regime.

With a whopping $675 million of debt due for rollover in November next year, both the company and its remaining shareholders are focusing on how that new environment will look, but Chorus is getting no traction in the Beehive.

Its issues are nothing but a political liability until after election day, and it’s not clear Labour knows any better than the Government what it would do.

In the meantime, so uncertain is the future for Chorus that the Australian research firm, Morningstar, has a mad value range for its shares of between $1 and $3.10.

That range reflects Morningstar’s judgement that Chorus, which should be a boring year-in, year-out yield stock, is a ‘‘high risk investment at this point’’.

That’s why English says: ‘‘I’m not so concerned about where they (the commission) come out on prices. I’m more concerned about the lack of predictability.’’