Arrangements For Voting Day – Monday 18 June

This advisory explains how the shareholder votes will be conducted on Monday and arrangements for a post-vote media conference.

Both companies organise their own Special Meetings for their separate shareholder votes on the Merger Proposal.

The New Zealand Dairy Group Special Meeting is at the Totara Christian Centre, Matamata, linked to the Ashburton Race Course and the Invercargill Working Men’s Club, starting at 11.00 am. Dairy Group Special Meetings are open to the media but the company asks that photographers and television cameras do not take photos or film during the course of the meeting.

The Kiwi Co-operative Dairies Special Meeting is at the Hawera Sports Complex, starting at 10.30 am. Kiwi Special Meetings are closed to the media.

Voting is either in person or by proxy. Proxy forms are required to be received by the relevant company no later than 48 hours before the Special Meetings. They can either direct the proxy how to vote or allow the proxy to exercise discretion.

Voting is governed by the Companies Act and the relevant company’s constitution. The number of shares and votes each shareholder has is based on the number of kilograms of milk solids they produced in the 2000/1 season that ended on 31 May.

The required threshold for the merger to proceed is 75 percent of the votes cast by the shareholders of each company.

Dairy Group will have scrutineers at each venue. The Dairy Group Shareholders’ Council has recommended the scrutineer be Deloittes. The Kiwi scrutineer will be KPMG.

It is expected to take approximately one to two hours for votes to be checked against the share registers and by the scrutineers. Results will be announced shortly afterwards.

Following the vote, Global Dairy Chairman John Roadley and Dairy Group Chairman Henry van der Heyden will hold a media conference at 4.00 pm at Le Grand Hotel, Corner of Victoria and Collingwood Streets, Hamilton, linked to Kiwi Chairman Greg Gent in Hawera.

Journalists who are unable to attend the media conference will be able to telephone in. From New Zealand, please dial 083033. From overseas, please dial +64 83083033. The PIN is 363789.

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