Share trade planning ‘step by step’
Fonterra
chief executive Andrew Ferrier is confident the cooperative has developed the
basis for a workable solution to farmer-to-farmer trading of shares – but the
devil is now in the detail.
The co-op’s
management, board and the Fonterra Shareholders’ Council (FSC) are working
through the process step by step. He said he was comfortable with progress
towards coming up with a final proposal that will go out to farmer shareholders
for consultation.
He couldn’t
be specific about the timing of any consultation, but said it would have to be
either before or after calving, which begins in some areas of the North Island
in July.
Ferrier
said management had come up with a model and it had then taken some time to
work through it with the co-op’s board before discussions with the FSC were
started.
Care
important
FSC
chairman Blue Read said it was important that due care was taken in refining
the trading model to avoid the danger of creating something that wasn’t
enduring. But both the board and management were conscious the issue needed to
be dealt with expediently to allow focus to turn to other business issues.
Fonterra
chairman Sir Henry van der Heyden has dismissed assertions by Open Country
Dairy’s chairman Laurie Margrain that farmer-to-farmer share trading will
prevent fair entry and exit from the cooperative if there is an imbalance
between willing buyers and sellers.
It’s
understood the proposed model will have provisions to ensure Fonterra’s
obligations under the Dairy Industry Restructuring Act (DIRA) are not abrogated
so there is fair entry and exit.
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