Fonterra, Sharesies join to make share trading easier
Fonterra is teaming up with wealth app provider Sharesies to make it easier for its farmer shareholders to trade co-op shares among themselves.
Many dairy farmers are taking advantage of this season’s better payout to regain some of the equity they lost in their farms during the previous two bad years.
Westpac’s head of agribusiness, Mark Stead, says a lot of its dairy customers are volunteering to pay back some of the debt they incurred because of the two bad seasons, when many farmers were forced into new debt just to keep their businesses running.
As well as paying back the banks, they will also have to pay back money they borrowed from Fonterra.
“I think there is a proactive approach by the farmer base to get equity back into their businesses,” Stead told Rural News.
“As a result of the last season’s downturn, they are volunteering a lot of free cashflow towards amortisation – given that all the banks have been supporting their customer base over the last two years.
“Instead of playing catch-up capex, which is obviously a requirement, they are coming back to their banks and saying ‘you helped us through the last two years by capitalising losses; now we’d like to replenish some of the equity we lost’,” he explains.
Stead says this optimism was also reflected at Fieldays, “with a sigh of relief... because of the lift in payout”.
If the dairy payout had not risen Fieldays would have been very different, he says. But now people are far more optimistic and positive than a year ago.
He says it appears most dairy farmers can now live with costs that equate to about $4.50/kgMS and with the $6 payout there is some spare cash to repay debt or for operating or capital spending.
But Stead warns that the turmoil of Brexit and Trump mean volatility will be the norm for the foreseeable future, so farmers and bankers are working together to find the best ways to deal with this.
The other black cloud on the horizon is interest rates. “The interest rate environment is changing and rates are increasing. With low deposit rates, superannuitants have been looking at other asset investment besides bank deposits... equities and property.
“The fact is that 75% of the way banks fund themselves is with term deposits, but with the fall-off in deposits they are having to go offshore for funds, which is more expensive and pushes up interest rates in NZ.”
Rural banker Rabobank is partnering with Food Rescue Kitchen on a new TV series which airs this weekend that aims to shine a light on the real and growing issues of food waste, food poverty and social isolation in New Zealand.
Telco infrastructure provider Chorus says that it believes all Kiwis – particularly those in the rural areas – need access to high-speed, reliable broadband.
World Veterinary Day falls on Saturday 27 April.
The Director General of MPI, Ray Smith says it's important for his department to celebrate the success of a whole range of groups and people around the country.
A small company which mobilised veterinarians around the country to deal with Mycoplasma bovis was one of the winners in this year's Biosecurity Awards, held at Parliament.
One of the country's top Māori sheep and beef farms is facing a five-year battle to get back to where it was before Cyclone Gabrielle struck just over 14 months ago.
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