By PHILLIPA STEVENSON
The sale of major milk product marketer New Zealand Dairy Foods has moved closer with the appointment of investment bank ABN Amro to handle the deal.
The 50 per cent of shares held in the company by New Zealand Dairy Group are to be sold to ensure competition in
the local market as part of the dairy industry's agreement with the Government for creating Global Dairy Co.
GlobalCo will retain the other major market player, Mainland.
Former Dairy Foods chairman Brian Allison, now an adviser to the company board, said the sale process could begin immediately with an examination of options.
Interest in the company has come from Australian company National Foods, a move complicated by Dairy Group's 18 per cent ownership of National Foods.
There is also a move among about 7000 North Island dairy farmers to buy the half of the company they do not already own. Last year, Dairy Foods revenue was $390 million.
