Govt signs off on treating Fonterra fund investors badly

Agriculture minister Damien O'Connor said Fonterra's restructuring has "no human rights implications". (Image: NZ Herald)

Jenny Ruth

Wed, 29 Jun 2022

One aspect of the government’s decision to sign off on Fonterra’s capital restructuring that is particularly obnoxious is its endorsement of the dairy giant mistreating investors in the Fonterra Shareholders Fund.The misnamed fund is the bit of Fonterra that non-farmers can own, although farmers and former farmers do own about 56% of it – about 70% of the fund’s investors are retail investors, counting those farmers as retail.When Fonterra capped the fund in May last year, it accounted for just 6.7% of the company’...

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