| Decision | Consent granted retrospectively |
|---|---|
| Decision maker | Toitū Te Whenua Land Information New Zealand |
| Decision date | 9 April 2025 |
| Pathway | Significant business assets |
| Investment | Acquisition of shares in eight New Zealand entities |
| Consideration | Approximately $530,000,000 |
| Applicant | Futureverse Corporation Limited |
| Vendors | Andrew James Higgs (as Sellers’ Representative on behalf of the selling shareholders of Centrapass Limited) Scott Mitchell (as Sellers’ Representative on behalf of the selling shareholders of Altered State Machine Limited) Robin Johannink (as Sellers’ Representative on behalf of the selling shareholders of DN 3010 Limited) Luke Facer (as Sellers’ Representative on behalf of the selling shareholders of Centrapay Limited) Jeffrey McDonald (as Sellers’ Representative on Behalf of the selling shareholders of Atem Car Club Limited) Andrew Beatson (as Sellers’ Representative on behalf of the selling shareholders of Non Fungible Labs Limited) Altered Phoenix Nominee Limited Aaron McDonald (as Sellers’ Representative on behalf of the selling shareholders of Immersve Limited) New Zealand 100% |
| Background | The Applicant, Futureverse Corporation Limited, is an entity focused on artificial intelligence and metaverse technology that relate to apps, games and experiences. The Applicant was established by NetX Partners Limited, and incorporated for the purposes of the transactions to which this application relates. This transaction occurred over a series of 5 independent, but conditional transactions which occurred in sequence, on the same day. The Applicant is an overseas person, despite being 88% New Zealand owned, because its ownership is structured through entities registered outside New Zealand. On 23 February 2023 the Applicant acquired the shares in eight New Zealand companies, being:
After acquisition, each NZ Target became a subsidiary of the Applicants group of companies.[3] This was a retrospective application as consent was not obtained prior to entering the transactions on 23 February 2023. The transaction was self-reported to LINZ and retrospective consent was considered to be appropriate given the inadvertent nature of the breach. Retrospective Consent was granted as the Applicant met the investor test criterion.
|
| More information | Matt Keenan |
| Retrospective penalty | $40,000 |