Which doesn’t sound like such bad advice now actually. VA would probably be in a far stronger position.
And also NZ left under their own steam, they weren’t ‘told to take a hike’. Their parting gifts were introducing even more complication into the VA share registry and an alliance with QF
In the end however, it all came down to the reports that Luxon let his ego get in the way by demanding that VA give up all international in a dysfunctional VA boardroom where all shareholders had their own agendas at the time. Its no wonder the shareholders went with "the other guy with the ego" as the "lesser of the two evils".
Was it a good idea at the time? Who knows. As said many times, there are still too many cooks in the kitchen.
If Luzon wanted to axe VA int'l, the man couldve put the money where his mouth is and launched a takeover himself on NZ's behalf. But the NZ board would've likely said no and it makes no sense from a financial perspective for them
