New Zealand's Fonterra Co-operative Group, the world's largest dairy exporter, said yesterday it is considering an initial public share offering (IPO) that could be worth as much as NZ$2.5 billion (US$1.9 billion).
The plan calls for splitting the cooperative's business operations and listing them as a separate company, while dairy farmers would retain 100 percent ownership of the milk supply business. Only 20 percent of the operations business would be available to the public, with farmers initially holding 80 percent of the listed entity.
Fonterra said in a statement to the New Zealand stock exchange that it was beginning a two-year consultation program with its shareholders to consider the new structure and possible listing.
"What we are considering is a further evolution of our Co-operative to enable Fonterra to continue to adapt, to ensure it remains relevant and competitive in the changing global dairy market," chairman Henry van der Heyden said.
Fonterra estimated that based on its current equity value, the new shares on issue could be worth between NZ$2 billion and NZ$2.5 billion, according to Dow Jones Newswires. That would make it the biggest IPO in New Zealand since Telecom Corp listed in 1991.
Fonterra collects and supplies milk and exports a range of dairy products. It owns brands such as Anchor, Tip Top, Anlene and Mainland and exports to North America, Europe and Asia.
At least 75 percent of the cooperative's dairy farmers would have to approve the restructuring plan and the share sale for it to go ahead.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day