Murray Goulburn follows silk road to launch $1.2 billion IPO

Support from international investors has allowed Australia's biggest milk processor Murray Goulburn to get away a $450 million capital raising, albeit at a cut-price, amid global volatility that has rocked markets.
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The cash injection will allow the 65-year-old co-operative to update its factories to produce more value-added products and deliver farmers a more stable milk price.
Its special trust units will begin trading on the ASX for the first time on Friday, starting at $2.10 each.
The debut price is at the bottom end of its indicative range, which was unveiled a month ago and stretched as high as $3.20 a unit.
But Murray Goulburn managing director Gary Helou told Fairfax Media he was pleased to be able to ensure the float would go ahead.
Investor appetite for initial public offerings has softened in past months, while Greece’s economic crisis has shaken equity markets across the globe.
«We are delighted to have completed a successful capital raising despite the uncertainty hanging over global financial markets,» Mr Helou said. «A range of high-quality investors have chosen to invest in Murray Goulburn and endorse our strategy.»
Mr Helou declined to name investors or the size of stakes, saying the co-operative would release its top 20 shareholders to the market on Friday.
But he said: «Large institutions from Australia, China, Middle East/London and the US have shown strong support».
The $2.10 price implies a market capitalisation of $1.2 billion. The co-operative had already raised $50 million from its farmer shareholders, who will retain control of the company, with unit holders having no voting rights.
Murray Goulburn chairman Philip Tracy said the co-operative wasn’t immune to the volatility on global financial markets. But he said the capacity to reach its capital raising goal was «testament to the quality of our business».
«[It is] a further endorsement of Murray Goulburn’s growth and value creation strategy to maximise farmgate milk prices and future earnings,» Mr Tracy said in a letter to the co-operative’s farmer shareholders.
«Murray Goulburn now has the capital it needs to deliver our plans to grow the business domestically and internationally to achieve sustainably higher milk process and returns for share and unit holders.»
Murray Goulburn has forecast a 2015-16 farmer payout of $6.05 a kilogram. Mr Tracy said this showed the growth strategy was working.
If the $6.05 price is achieved, it will be the first time farmers have been paid about $6 a kilogram for three consecutive years.
Some investors had been concerned about Murray Goulburn’s float, considering unit holders would have no voting rights and its profit sharing mechanism was tied to the milk price.
Murray Goulburn had pitched the float to investors with an implied yield of 7.4 per cent, which Mr Helou hoped would be enough to allay the concerns about non-voting stock.
But if the farmgate price returned to FY12, FY13 levels, the yield will drop to 3.5 to 4.5 per cent.
The co-operative, however, is hoping to provide more stability to the farmer payout by lessening its dependency on bulk dairy products, the price of which has halved in the past year.
Bulk dairy goods have dropped from 48 to 36 per cent of Murray Goulburn’s product mix in the past two years, with co-operative expanding its Devondale range domestically and internationally.
«We will now be delivering the key capital projects for dairy beverages, consumer cheese and nutritional powders which will further increase Murray Goulburn’s weighting towards higher value-add premium dairy foods and away from volatile bulk commodity markets and prices,» Mr Tracy said.
 
Source: SMH
 

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Así lo expresó Domingo Possetto, secretario de la seccional Rafaela, quien además, afirmó que a los productores «habitualmente los ignoran los gobiernos». Además, reconoció la labor de los empresarios de las firmas locales y aseguró que están «esperanzados» con la negociación entre SanCor y Adecoagro.

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