Strong shareholder mandate needed for Fonterra’s $4.22b divestment
Fonterra shareholders are being urged to deliver a strong and clear mandate on the proposed $4.22 billion sale of consumer and related businesses to Lactalis.
Fonterra Co-operative Council chair John Stevenson says of key interest to the council and to Fonterra farmers is to what extent the strong earnings and return on capital for FY23 can be sustained in FY24 and beyond.
The council notes that the top end of the FY24 forecast earnings range of 45-60 cents per share is above the FY24 target of 45-55 cents per share announced in September 2021, but well below FY23's normalised 80 cents per share.
"Management has reported that the favourable price relativities we've experenced across FY23 have reduced from their peaks," says Stevenson.
He says farmers haev reported to them that they are encouraged to see that the business is trying to improve underlying performance outside of stream returns through its focus on reducing costs across the co-op and the two new efficiency metrics that have been announced.
Council will take a keen interest in monitoring progress against these metrics when the FY24 interim results are announced, noting the FY23 figures of $1.39 cash cash operating expenses per kgMS and $9.21 gross profit from core operations per kgMS that were reported.
