MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

NZ Farming needs 60 million USD to complete dairy investment in Uruguay

The NZ company recently sold one of its assets in Uruguay

New Zealand Farming Systems Uruguay needs to raise about 60 million US dollars to complete the development of the company, says Chairman John Parker. The company was set up to develop dairy-farm operations in Uruguay and floated on the NZX in 2007.

NZ Farming Systems was looking at selling farms which were largely undeveloped and had sold one for about 8 million USD, Parker said.

“We have other farm sales in prospect and we can sell those farms profitability compared to what we've paid for them”

The company had the ability to take on another bond issue in Uruguay.

“We've said that'll be about another 30 million,” he said. “We just have to decide whether to pick it up. So it still leaves a bit of a gap but not major.”

The company would probably go for the Uruguay bond issue but there was no timeframe, Parker said.

“It leaves a number of possibilities of equity raising in New Zealand, or elsewhere, or from current shareholders, new shareholders, etc.”

The 60 million would be enough to take the company through to completion, he said. In a market update in May the company confirmed a projected earning before interest and tax loss of a maximum 10 million USD for the fiscal year.