The Tait Foundation hopes to sell its Christchurch headquarters at Burnside for $58 million (£44.98 million). It will use the money for investment in subsidiary, Tait Communications, which has a 15-year lease on the three-year old property. Tait Communications currently pays the rent plus annual company dividends to the Foundation for disbursement to various causes, including reinvestment in the company.

“The money from the sale will be reinvested in the company which in turn will support increased dividends to the Foundation,” executive director Garry Diack said.

Another source within the company said the need for new capital was no secret among staff.

It follows the sale last year of 5.3 hectares of land next to the campus.

Diack said there were alternative funding sources but they reduced control and ownership by the Foundation, set up by the late Sir Angus Tait many years ago.

“If you raise bank loans it compromises performance because you have to pay back the debt.

“Any technology (company) is debt averse. There’s no doubt about that.

“The sale is not about performance of the company. This is investing in the future. There are big changes in the radio industry with migration from analogue to digital and moving to cellular based networks with our US investment with the Harris corporation.

“The Foundation carried out the original property development and got it off to a great start but there are benefits of having someone who is more of a property manager and developer which is not necessarily the core activity of the Foundation,” Diack said.