The company has lost its contract with New Zealand’s Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry to Unisys, after having managed its IT infrastructure since 1998. Unisys will take over in November in a deal worth NZD 2m ($1.3m) a year for five years.

Gen-i’s contract loss represents a bad start for New Zealand Telecom Ltd which only acquired the company from Cullen Investment Ltd in June 2004. However, MAF claims that the move is nothing to do with the change in ownership, just the superior bid of Unisys in the tender process.

New Zealand Telecom paid NZD 62.5m ($40.1m) for Gen-i, capturing a NZD 50m ($30.6m), four-year outsourcing deal with insurance company IAG New Zealand which Gen-i won last year.