4 Jul 2013

Fonterra quizzed about Trading Among Farmers

6:28 am on 4 July 2013

Fonterra's Trading Among Farmers operation came in for plenty of attention at the dairy section of Federated Farmers annual conference in Ashburton on Wednesday.

Farmers asked Fonterra's general manager for TAF, Aaron Jenkins, if he had been surprised by the early jump in the share price from $5.50 to more than $8.

Mr Jenkins said while it was a bit of a surprise - it was much better than having the share price go the other way.

He said the bias in November 2012 when the price was set was based on market credibility rather than capital raising.

"What we were worried about back then was Facebook, Facebook had done something when they floated when one could argue they perhaps got a little bit greedy and price dropped 20% and it affects the credibility of Facebook ongoing."

At the close of trading on Wednesday, the unit price for shares in Fonterra's shareholders fund was $7.30.