It remains unclear how many Fonterra shareholders have chosen to buy “dry” shares in their company.This afternoon the dairy giant announced that farmers have invested $270.7 million buying shares in the co-operative following capital structure
It remains unclear how many Fonterra shareholders have chosen to buy “dry” shares in their company.
This afternoon the dairy giant announced that farmers have invested $270.7 million buying shares in the co-operative following capital structure changes last year.
In a share application period that closed last week, farmers were given the chance to adjust their shareholding up or down to between 100% and 120% of their current or expected production.
The share price was $4.52.
About a third of the company’s 10,500 shareholders subscribed for 60 million shares to cover both production increases for the current season and additional dry shares.
A Fonterra spokesman this afternoon said it would be unclear until the end of the season how many shares would be extra “dry” shares.
This came after nearly 90% of voters supported Fonterra’s capital structure changes at its annual meeting last November.
During the share application period, 59 shareholders surrender 1.6 million shares worth $7.3 million.
In a statement from the company, chairman Sir Henry van der Heyden said farmers had responded well to the share issue, despite the difficult circumstances many are facing.
“It’s very pleasing that a significant number of our farmer shareholders have shown their support for the co-operative by taking up more shares,” he said.
“This is despite the fact that cash flows continue to be tight and drought conditions are starting to bite in some parts of the country making it hard for many farmers to take up additional shares right now.”
Sir Henry said that because individual farmers’ situations differed greatly, Fonterra had set no expectation on how much new share capital would be raised during the application period.
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