New Plymouth District seeks rest of Tasman Farms

New Plymouth District offers premium to mop up Tasman Farms minorities

Sept. 2 (BusinessDesk) - New Plymouth District Council is offering to acquire the shares in Tasman Farms Ltd. that it doesn’t already own as the operator of dairy farms in Tasmania prepares to delist from the Unlisted platform.

The council, which holds about 78% of Tasman, is offering $1 apiece for the remaining shares. The stock last traded at 71 cents on Unlisted.

The corporate dairy farmers this week posted a 107% lift in profit to $567,000 for the year ended May 31 in the face of severe weather conditions which trimmed milk production and lower payout prices.

It farms just over 6,000 hectares of dairy and pastoral land in northwest Tasmania following a large scale conversion of the land in the mid-2000s.
Production during the 2010 season fell 3.3% to 4.02 million kilograms of milk solids, and the average payout dropped 20% to NZ$5.34/kg ms.

The company had two significant injections of new funds, including a Nov. 2009 issuing of two million shares at $1 each. In May 2010, the company raised a further $6.18 million from convertible redeemable notes issue to the majority equity holder, New Plymouth District Council.

(BusinessDesk)

© Scoop Media