Shania Twain Co Uk - The UK Shania Site

The Overseas Investment Commission rebuffed an initial bid by Canadian singing star Shania Twain to buy two South Island high country farms, papers reveal.

Information about Twain's successful bid to buy almost 25,000ha of South Island high country was released by the Overseas Investment Commission (OIC) yesterday under the Official Information Act.

Twain has been granted permission to buy the perpetual leases to Motatapu Station and Soho Station near Wanaka for $21.4 million. But the papers reveal Twain and her husband almost lost their bid.

The OIC told Twain it was inclined to turn down her application and only changed its mind after the couple proposed to build a public walking track through the property.

The papers also reveal Twain and her husband plan to build a new $1.5m home on their land and stay there for up to four months a year.

In their application, Twain and her husband Robert Lange say they plan to build a home worth $1.5m on Motatapu Station. The pair say they want "a safe and secure haven" where they can spend up to four months away from the pressure of their public careers.

But the OIC said the Twains' new house was personal expenditure that did not add to their case. It questioned the applicant's claims that investment in the sheep station would return it to a state of profitability.

The OIC raised questions about the real reason Twain wanted the sheep station, saying it doubted whether it was really a viable farming investment. It initially decided the purchase was not in the national interest, would not benefit Wanaka, and could push up the price of land for farmers seeking to set up their own property.

"The commission, while seeing some merits in the applicant's proposal, did not consider it a particularly compelling case given the size and nature of the property," the OIC's confidential report says.

"The commission's overall assessment is that there are questions about whether the applicant's proposal is likely to achieve a substantial increase in productivity or efficiency on the properties."

The OIC also challenged Twain's claims that the farm would employ substantially more staff, saying the short-term increase would be from around three to six full-time staff.

"It is not a substantial increase in employment that one might experience where a new tourist venture or factory was being established," the OIC said.

The papers show the OIC changed its mind about the purchase after the applicants formulated a plan to build a walkway through the property and spend $250,000 on track development and huts.

They also offered to fence off almost half the property for conservation estate.

The OIC was also persuaded by Land Information New Zealand that Twain's offer to do assess the conversation values of the properties was of greater benefit than the OIC had initially appreciated.

In granting the bid, the OIC said Twain had to open the walking track and huts to the public no later than Easter 2006.