Natural Dairy again delays its results

Photo / Sarah Ivey

The Chinese-owned company hoping to buy the Crafar farms has once again delayed announcing its annual results.

Natural Dairy, listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, was supposed to announce its results for the 14 months to the end of May to shareholders by the end of September.

It has now twice delayed their release - which it admits is a breach of exchange rules.

On September 30, the company blamed the delay on its "overseas subsidiaries" for failing to provide it with "certain information". It promised to reveal the information by October 8.

Yesterday, the company said it now planned to release the information on October 29. It did not give any further explanation for the latest delay.

The company has had a tumultuous year, including several restructurings involving major changes on its board.

In January, its chairwoman stood down amid claims she was involved in unauthorised share transactions. Her replacement, Singaporean investment banker Yip Kean Mun, quit last month because of "health reasons" and other commitments.

Its new chairman is the 27-year-old nephew of Auckland businessman Jack Chen, who until now has run a small family food business in China.

In June, Natural Dairy announced a HK$77 million ($13.1 million) loss for the March year - an improvement on its HK$203 million loss the year before.

Since then, it has confirmed it may have to write down the value of its mining assets by about HK$238 million, because of a deal it has labelled "unauthorised, invalid, fraudulent and unlawful".

In New Zealand, the company announced plans to contribute $200,000 to earthquake relief efforts in Canterbury, and to sponsor a float in the Auckland Santa Parade.

However, it also revealed last month that it was shelving its ambitious plans to spend up to $1.5 billion establishing a significant dairy business in New Zealand.