Shareholders have voted in favour of Synlait's equity raise. Photo / NZ Herald
Shareholders have voted in favour of Synlait's equity raise. Photo / NZ Herald
If Synlait does not have a good financial year, there is a “very good chance” of another capital raise to bail out the processor in 12 months, chair George Adams says.
Shareholders of the embattled New Zealand Exchange (NZX) listed dairy manufacturer voted in favour of an equityraise on Wednesday morning. Chinese company Bright Dairy contributed $185 million and increased its Synlait holding to more than 65%.
Synlait’s second-largest shareholder, The a2 Milk Company, contributed $32.8m to maintain its 19.8% stake.
Minority investors’ overall stake in the company will reduce from 41.2% to 14.9%.
In the end, more than 90% of votes were cast in favour of the three resolutions for Bright and a2 to put in the new money and to amend the firm’s constitution.
Roughly 30 shareholders, some of whom were supplying farmers and including former Bright Dairy director Ruth Richardson, attended the relatively short meeting at its Dunsandel site near Ashburton. It took less than an hour and finished in time for trading to begin on the NZX.
Synlait’s shares opened up 7.7% to 48.5c on the NZX.
