Open Country opens butter plant
When American retail giant Cosco came to audit Open Country Dairy’s new butter plant at the Waharoa site and give the green light to supply their American stores, they allowed themselves a week for the exercise.
Co-op chairman Henry van der Heyden says the advisors are running the ruler over TAF as part of a comprehensive due diligence process.
Van der Heyden says the Fonterra board's due diligence committee is drawing upon a panel of advisors with deep understanding of the co-operative who will provide technical expertise and critical review.
They include:
• Professor Michael Cook, Missouri University USA, who is an expert on co-operatives;
• Alan Galbraith QC, whose areas of practice include constitutional, commercial and securities law;
• Murray Gough, former chief executive of the New Zealand Dairy Board;
• Paul Oldfield, a director at corporate law firm Harmos Horton Lusk;
• Eric Lucas, a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers;
• Colin Giffney, who is on the board of the Financial Markets Authority and is deputy chair of the Takeovers Panel.
The advisors were picked by Fonterra management and chairman of the board capital structure committee John Wilson. The board's due diligence committee is headed by John Waller and includes Wilson; David Jackson; Jim van der Poel and Nicola Shadbolt.
"The committee will produce a series of reports to the board this year as it reviews progress on TAF, and ensures it stays true to the intent of the co-operative," says van der Heyden.
"A particular focus of the committee will be to ensure that the market is deep, liquid and readily available for farmer shareholders to buy and sell shares when they want.
"Another focus will be changes to DIRA.
"In all their deliberations, front of mind will be the board's commitment to 100 per cent control and ownership."
Fonterra will later this month update shareholders on TAF.
