New Zealand-based kiwifruit marketer Zespri has made good progress in strengthening alignment and grower ownership and control of the company through a targeted share offer and buy-back programme.
Zespri has accepted 427 applications to purchase over 12 million shares for a total of over $95 million. Participation was open to growers who do not own shares and to growers who hold less than one share per tray of their production.
The capital raised through the share offer enables Zespri to fund in full a buy-back programme from eligible shareholders. This was targeted at shareholders who no longer produce kiwifruit and shareholders who are over-aligned, meaning that they hold over 1.5 shares per tray of production and over.
Zespri said that the share offer and buy-back programme is a milestone in a long-term project to strengthen the industry’s foundations. There were 257 applications for the buy-back involving nearly 9 million shares for a total of over $70 million.