A2 Milk looks to boost Chinese connections with $250m acquisition
A2 Milk looks to boost Chinese connections with $250m acquisition
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Infant formula and milk seller A2 Milk has made a Christmas Eve acquisition of New Zealand dairy company Mataura in a deal it hopes will strengthen its relationships with key state-owned Chinese business partners.
A2 told shareholders on Thursday morning it had entered into a binding agreement to acquire 75 per cent of Mataura Valley Milk (MVM), which produces a number of nutritional and milk powders. The deal had been foreshadowed by A2 which confirmed it had begun discussions in August.
Mataura Valley s current majority shareholder is a Chinese state-owned enterprise, China Animal Husbandry Group (CAHG), which will retain a 25 per cent interest. The group is a subsidiary of China National Agriculture Development Group, which is the parent of a2’s strategic logistics and distribution partner in China, CSFA Holdings Shanghai (China State Farm).
John Hawkins/Stuff
Mataura Valley Milk opened its $226m plant near Gore in 2018. Babidge said it was pleasing the transaction had the support of all Mataura’s existing minority shareholders, ‘’many of whom are farmer suppliers.” The purchase will give it dual supply arrangements for nutritional products, complementing its existing supply relationships with Synlait Milk and Fonterra, he said.
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Australia v China: The critical lessons New Zealand must learn
15 Dec, 2020 06:58 AM
4 minutes to read
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on April 1, 2009.
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OPINION:
New Zealand and China are being pushed toward further regional economic integration as part of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) signed last month.
On the face of it, the RCEP is a positive step for cross-border investments. It further integrates trade between the two nations, along with Japan, South Korea, Australia and the 10 countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).
But perhaps we should stop to ask whether the haste with which this is happening will generate equitable and sustainable benefits.