It remains to be seen how, if at all, Fonterra will communicate the performance of its Chinese infant formula investment to farmers and unit holders in its NZX-listed shareholders’ fund.
The dairy giant confirmed this week that it will spend about $754 million buying an 18.8 per cent stake in Hangzhou-based, Shenzhen-listed baby milk manufacturer Beingmate Baby & Child.
Fonterra hopes a distribution agreement for its Anmum brand, which comes with the investment, will allow the co-operative to gain traction in China’s booming – yet complex and fiercely competitive – formula market.
But Beingmate’s recent financial results have raised questions about the investment.
According to a preliminary result released last month, annual profit fell 91 per cent to 65.7 million yuan ($14.1 million) as costs increased and revenue fell.
Those figures were only publicised in New Zealand after local media became aware of them, prompting questions from financial analysts.
Stock Takes asked Fonterra chief financial officer Lukas Paravicini what had caused such a steep decline in Beingmate’s bottom-line, but he wasn’t particularly forthcoming.
«I need to, unfortunately, refer you to Beingmate, which is the listed company, to give you more information on this,» he said.
Paravicini also encouraged me to have a look at the full annual result Beingmate will release next month.
There’s a couple of problems here.
First, trying to get information out of most Chinese firms over the phone is basically impossible for non-Mandarin speaking journalists.
An additional challenge is the fact that Beingmate reports its results only in Mandarin.
Paravicini acknowledged these problems and said: «I will not exclude that we might propose to have these documents printed in English.»
Distribution focus
Talking to Fonterra, you get a sense that the performance of its Beingmate investment is unimportant compared with the Anmum deal.
It’s an expensive distribution agreement and time will tell how it works out for the co-operative.
The partnership is expected to provide Anmum, which Fonterra launched in China in 2013, with a presence in 80,000 retail outlets across the world’s second-biggest economy.
But capturing the attention of consumers will still be a major challenge.
Take a walk through the infant formula section of any Chinese supermarket and you’ll see a plethora of brands on sale. Then there are the structural changes taking place within the industry.
In a bid to bolster consumer confidence in domestic firms, China’s government wants to consolidate the sector and have 10 infant formula companies with combined annual sales of 20 billion yuan ($4.3 billion) by the end of this year.
Beingmate is one of the top domestic brands, with about a 10 per cent share of a market worth about $18 billion last year.
Beingmate shares came out of a trading halt yesterday and were up 7 per cent at 18.94 yuan ($4.07) just before 3pm.
Fonterra bought its stake at 18 yuan per share.
So far so good.
Takeover benefit?
Could Japan Post’s A$6.5 billion takeover bid for ASX-listed Toll Holdings benefit local freight and logistics heavyweight Mainfreight?
Stuart Williams, head of equities at Nikko Asset Management New Zealand, thinks so.
He said the takeover would be a distraction for Toll for some time.
«It’s very difficult to imagine that Toll management is really focused on making the very best out of every piece of freight they have and loading every truck to the gunnels, which is what Mainfreight pride themselves on,» he said.
Nikko has an overweight holding in Mainfreight.
Toll’s board has backed Japan Post’s A$9.04 per share offer, which was a 49 per cent premium to the stock’s closing price on the day before the bid was launched.
Analysts have said the deal is a major boon for investors in Toll, whose shares were trading at A$8.81 yesterday. Mainfreight shares, which finished down 23c at $15.94 last night, reached a record close of $16.26 last month.
The company said yesterday that it expected full-year profit excluding abnormals to rise as much as 7.1 per cent to $83 million from revenue of more than $2 billion. The annual result will be released on May 27.
Retail Rally
Disappointing trading updates knocked 50 per cent off the outdoor apparel and equipment retailer’s stock price between December 22 and February 5, when it closed at $1.39.
Since then the shares have rebounded, rising more than 28 per cent to close at $1.76 last night.
On February 2 the company said it expected to post a loss of between $1 million and $2 million for the six months to January 31, compared with an $11.4 million profit in the same period a year earlier.
Acting chief executive Mark Todd said trading over the Christmas period into January had been below expectations.
«The reduction in same-store sales in Australia throughout December and January, and in New Zealand from Boxing Day onwards was disappointing,» Todd said.
The departure of competitor Fishing Camping Outdoors from the New Zealand market could be seen as positive for Kathmandu.
FCO’s owner, ASX-listed Super Retail Group, announced last month that it would close its 13 NZ stores.
Source: NZ Herald
