10 Jul 2013

Share price set in Synlait Milk offer

6:50 pm on 10 July 2013

Synlait Milk has set a final price of $2.20 per ordinary share in its initial public offering, valuing it at about $322 million.

The figure is towards the bottom of the $2.05 to $2.65 indicative range for the offer, which opens on Wednesday.

The Canterbury dairy processor will list on the New Zealand stock market on 23 July.

The price was set after a bookbuild to institutional investors and NZX firms this week.

There will not be a public offer.

The float will raise $75 million in new capital to repay debt and fund Synlait's growth initiatives in infant formula and other products.

Existing shareholders will also sell 17.6 million shares worth $38.7 million.

The majority owner, China's Bright Dairy, is not selling shares but its stake will fall from 51% to about 39% as a result of the float.

Synlait Milk managing director and co founder John Penno says he's comfortable with the final price, which is about a third of the way up the indicative price range.

He says building a solid share register was more important to the company than the price.

Mr Penno would not give details of the share allocation but says there was a positive response from New Zealand and international institutions as well as New Zealand brokers.

First NZ Capital Securities and Goldman Sachs are handling the IPO.