Social Impact Investing

Mataatua Whenua Co-Op Ltd - Social Impact Investing

As part of its socio-economic “WOW” (“Whanau on the Whenua”) program kaupapa, the Mataatua Whenua Cooperative Ltd is pleased to announce that it has entered into its first JV “Up-North” with well-known landowner and businessman, Eric Lloyd in a deal that sees the formation of a WOW launch capital deployment base of $4.88M. With his tipuna tracing their whakapapa back to the early migrations to the far north on waka’s such as the eastern BOP’s legendary Mataatua waka, Eric heads up the Kohumaru Manuka Station operations and the planned Kohumaru Farm oil distillation and macadamia nursery hub initiative developed to support the launch of the social-impact focused WOW program “Up-North” in tandem with the WOW program developed for “Out-East” to support the 1M macadamia trees project.

JV’S @ WORK: This new landowner-centric JV follows on the heels of the JV that delivered the whanau owned WOW micro-agri-biz pilot operation and macadamia seedstock supplier in the Waiotahe Valley earlier this year. Collectively, the JV’s bring in over $5M of formation capital to the Co-Op. Closure of the planned Whanarua Bay nursery acquisition will increase this to over $7M further supporting leveraged capital raising capability through a mix of equity and debt capital. While access to Government grants to support job creation is a possibility, the Co-Op has structured its entire dual tranche, $3.9M Series A round on a secured, income yielding basis with a focus on Qualifying Parties within the private sector who support long term trendlines in Maori land value equality restoration.

WOW @ WORK: The WOW micro-agri-biz program kaupapa of the Co-Op is to create middle-class rural jobs and income earning opportunities developed to help rebuild whenua economic value that will in turn underpin the progressive economic multiplier impact needed to drive the revitalization of rural communities where middle-class Maori whanau have been economically marginalized through primary sector consolidations over many decades. Rural communities that were traditionally dependent on a prosperous middle-class that in most cases were overwhelmingly Maori have been the hardest hit by the rural commercial exodus that these primary sector consolidations created. The Co-Op’s WOW micro-agri-biz program was developed to help support Maori whanau who live and work on smaller landblocks in these rural communities. Maori who struggle to earn income from their whenua because of atavistic native title land laws that continue to make it difficult for traditional c apital p roviders to deliver to middle-class rural whanau, the capital needed to generate income from their freehold whenua. A legislatively imposed economic impost that has only served to further exacerbate the macro socio-economic problems in rural communities that these industry consolidations created and negatively impacted on so many for so long.

THE 12 STEPS: This WOW support is built around the Co-Ops 12 step entry process that starts with the landowning whanau’s written authority to commence the membership process, the preparation of a business plan for the whanau, a tikanga centric whenua soil nutrition testing and analysis program, a landowner consent process and working with Government agencies committed to Maori economic advancement supported by a long-term, revenue-share based Grower-Producer taonga supply agreement that supports the protocols of kaitiakitanga. An agreement that will equitably deliver the revenues needed to support the Co-Op’s whanau members income base, which will in tandem drive the transformation of their whenua into a valuable, income producing, intergenerational micro-agri-biz asset. One backed by two classes of shareholding assets created for intergenerational holding by the Co-Ops Grower-Producer members. Both as Transacting Member Shareholders of the Co- Op and I nvestment Member Shareholders in the Treasury Shares company.

VERTICAL INTEGRATION: The Co-Op’s revenue share structure is based on a contracted Annual Farm Gate Price for the Transacting Member Shareholder whanau’s produce which is based on an extracted oil value which is to be used in the manufacture of proprietary, Maoritanga theme branded topical & ingestible applications in beauty, wellness and therapeutic products which promote trust in the provenance of the plant-based ingredients that go into the product manufacturing process. Marketed under the “177° EAST brand, the profits from this value-adding process will be distributed back to the whanau membership base of the Co-Op over and above the contracted annual farm gate income, thus creating a dual income (cash flow) source supported by the dual shareholding structure that entrenches cooperative ownership principles while providing a transparent trading and wealth generating eco-system for both Transacting Members as well as Inve stor Mem bers of the Co-Op and its ownership eco-system.

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