Fonterra’s farmer shareholders have voted overwhelmingly in favour of the sale of the brands like Mainland and Anchor to a French company.
More than 88 percent of the votes cast at a special meeting backed the $4.2 billion sale to French dairy giant Lactalis.
ASB Bank estimated the sale proceeds would ultimately be worth about $4.5b to the economy, with farmer shareholders receiving an average tax-free payout of about $392,000 if the sale went ahead.
The sale to the world’s biggest dairy group, French-based Lactalis, is the final step in Fonterra’s transition to a slimmed-down New Zealand-based supplier of raw ingredients and high-value products to other manufacturers.
https://www.fonterra.com/nz/en/flexible-shareholding/supply-fonterra.html
You have to eventually hold 33% of your 3-season average milk supply in shares. And you have 6 years to get to that level of holding.
I can’t find an easy guide to work out what that actually works out to in money for a typical farm. I think there are Fonterra shares on the NZX but I don’t know if they’re the same as what the farmer’s hold.
Ah thanks. So farmers have to hold 33% of what they supply (measured in dollars of milk to value of shares I guess??), but can hold up to 4x.
So the average payout might be $400k, but it’s likely new farmers or those struggling will get much less, and the wealthy successful farmers that could afford to buy more shares will get a lot more.