UPDATE: Alliance plans to start docking farmer payments for shares to bolster balance sheet

UPDATE: Alliance plans to start docking farmer payments for shares to bolster balance sheet
Tina Morrison
(Adds comment from Massey University lecturer starting in fourth paragraph.) By Tina Morrison Feb. 10 (BusinessDesk) - Alliance Group, New Zealand's second-largest meat cooperative, plans to start withholding some stock payments to its farmers from next week to bolster its balance sheet and force suppliers to meet their share requirements. From Feb. 15, Alliance will withhold 50 cents per head for lamb, sheep and calves; $2 per head for deer; and $6 per head for cattle, it said in a letter to shareholders. The payments will go towards...