The Government says 100,000 New Zealanders have registered their interest in buying shares in Mighty River Power.
On Tuesday, the Government opened a three-week period during which New Zealanders can register for more information on the partial sale of the State-owned energy company.
Potential investors can register their interest online or by ringing a call centre. Pre-registration is only open to New Zealand citizens or residents who have an Inland Revenue number, a New Zealand bank account and a New Zealand address.
A minimum of $1000 must be invested. Anyone wanting up to $2000 worth of shares will be able to buy that amount, but may find their application scaled back if the offer is over-subscribed.
The website experienced technical problems on Tuesday night with slow connection speeds blamed on an overwhelming public interest in the offer of up to 49% of the company.
The Government said the response is comparable with the 10 days it took for pre-registration to reach the 100,000 mark with the Contact Energy share offer in 1999.
Prime Minister John Key said that if the shares are over-subscribed, the Government will stand by its commitment to ensure that New Zealanders are at the head of the queue. Pre-registration ends on 22 March.
Opposition parties say only a small minority will benefit from an incentive by the Government for investors to pre-register.
New Zealanders who formally express interest in applying to buy shares in the next three weeks could end up with more shares than others if the float is over-subscribed.
But Labour Party leader David Shearer said only those who can afford to apply to buy more than $2000 worth of shares will benefit from the incentive.
Green Party co-leader Russel Norman said the majority will receive no benefit and the incentive is political.
Finance Minister Bill English said assumptions that only high income people have savings are wrong and a range of people will want to invest in Mighty River Power.
Sharebroker contact 'coincidental'
The Treasury says a reported contact by a sharebroker to someone who registered via the call centre to buy shares in Mighty River Power is purely coincidental.
Greens co-leader Russel Norman said there needs to be an investigation to find out whether there was a leak from the centre to the sharebroker.
But the Treasury said on Wednesday the information collected through the call centre and the website is protected and secure.
Spokesperson Chris Major says in this case, it appears that since the registration launch, sharebrokers have independently emailed clients to see whether they are interested in the share offer.
