MyFarm extends Gold Creek offering

Dairy farm manager MyFarm has extended the $3.5 million initial public offering on its Southland, Gold Creek farm, having gained the minimum $2 million investment required during the past month.

The offering's prospectus opened on November 14. It has been pushed out a further 12 days to close on December 16, the settlement date for Gold Creek.

MyFarm last month launched the unregistered share trading platform MyFarm Trading, and is selling some of its farms, singly, into an individual company entity, or ''collective investment vehicles'' (CIV), each of which will be able to trade its shares on the MyFarm Trading platform.

Apart from Fonterra shareholder units, which deal in finished products as opposed to milk production, MyFarm's individual CIV's are the only way investors can obtain publicly traded shares; requiring a minimum $20,000 investment.

The present initial public offering is for a CIV called GCF Investments Ltd, seeking to raise up to $3.52 million, which is a 40% share in the total equity being raised for Gold Creek, 17km northeast of Gore.

Gold Creek, a 214ha, 620-cow property, is being purchased on December 16 for $10.38 million, including about $1.8 million for Fonterra shares, and debt.

On settlement of Gold Creek, shares in GCF investments will be quoted on MyFarm Trading.

A MyFarm spokeswoman said yesterday the offer had reached its minimum $2 million, but as it allowed for up to $3.5 million of subscriptions, MyFarm decided to extend the offer until the farm purchase date, December 16.

''We have some orders sitting there [MyFarm Trading] for shares in our dairy farms already,'' she said.

MyFarm has about 47 farms under management, and aside from having a platform available for the first time for smaller investors, the concept would also increase industry access to capital and create liquidity, or availability of share sales, for farm investors.

-simon.hartley@odt.co.nz

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