Wednesday 4 March 2009

EXTRAORDINARY TIMES AHEAD FOR FONTERRA?

Farmers Weekly is carrying a yarn about concern about Fonterra.

Its an open letter to board members and suppliers from Kevin and Andrea Marsh of Te Puke.

  • Their concerns are the retention of Fonterra of 28c of the $7.90 payout.
  • Shifting the balance date so there was a longer wait for final seasonal payment in October of the following season.
  • Downsizing the forecast with little notice.

  • Altering the announced schedules of payments with no increase till July rather than suppliers receiving boosts in November and February

  • All of the above factors in another season of dry January and February - with no payouts till July.

And some governance issues make much more interesting reading here as well.

The upshot is that the Marsh's have said that they want to establish if other shareholders feel the same way they do. If they get support from 10 percent of the shareholders then they want to hold an extraordinary general meeting.

A old Southern Jersey Heifer has told Roarprawn that these issues have struck a chord and the good money is on the Marsh's getting the numbers for a meeting.

Watch this space.

3 comments:

Sally said...

The link "And some governance issues make much more interesting reading here as well."

Is the same as the Farmers Weekly yarn>

tina said...

yes sally - its their story. however it appears the reaction to it has been strong.

LAMBCUT said...

Whole milk powder prices on Fonterra’s internet-based sales platform GlobalDairy Trade are up 16.6 percent compared with last month. Lambcut regrets that farmer concerns are likely to diminish in direct inverse proportion to rising prices. Many aspects of Fonterra’s operations, auction system, conduct in relation to Sanlu and governance continue to require the most diligent shareholder scrutiny.