Chairman Henry van der Heyden said a series of farmer shareholder meetings around the country supported the board's decision to stop promoting its preferred capital restructuring option, which would have seen part of the company publicly listed on the New Zealand Stock Exchange.
‘‘There was a sense of relief that the board has parked the preferred option,'' he said in an interview.
But the meetings had also reinforced farmer support for the strategic direction the dairy company was taking, of growing its business through international joint ventures and acquisition, but not at the expense of farmer control.
Mr van der Heyden said the board and management had stopped work on its preferred option, which would not be part of the next step in the capital restructuring process.
Instead, they were looking once again at the other capital restructuring options that met farmer demands of retaining control and a transparent milk pricing mechanism.
Shareholders have told the board redemption risk and shareholder choice, initially identified by Fonterra as a farmer concern, were of less importance to them, but possibly a worry to the dairy company.
Other options considered by the company but rejected were a part divestment of downstream businesses, non-voting B class shares, hybrid debt, letter stocks and a call option over processing assets.
Mr van der Heyden said that while it was taking longer than expected, that was the way co-operatives operated.
‘‘It's the way we do business.''
There was no pressure for a quick resolution to the capital restructuring issue, other than for creating a new milk price mechanism, which required a change to the constitution, and would be presented at the annual meeting later this year.
This latest round of meetings had attracted about 2500 shareholders from around the country, he said.
