Beingmate name change signals shift

China’s stock regulator has demanded an explanation from Fonterra’s investment partner Beingmate for why it wants to change its name.

It is currently described as ‘‘Beingmate Baby & Child Food Co’’ reflecting its historic business of infant nutrition, but it proposes to drop the ‘‘Baby and Child’’ reference to become simply Beingmate Co Ltd.

This is because it says it plans to move into property development and health care.

The move comes as Fonterra, which bought an 18.8 per cent stake in the company for $750 million in 2015, is poised to decide whether to totally cut ties with Beingmate. Last year it wrote down its investment by $439m.

Fonterra’s representative on the Beingmate board, Johan Priem, voted against the name change, arguing the former stock exchange high flyer should continue focusing on its baby formula business. He said there should be thorough market research before such a move.

Beingmate’s Chinese founder Xie Hong, also on the board, abstained from the name change decision. Earlier this year Fonterra’s head of operations in China Christina Zhu stepped down as a Beingmate board member, because of a potential conflict of interest after Fonterra took back the marketing and sales for its Anmum brand from Beingmate.

Chinese on line publisher Caixin Global said the Chinese regulator’s biggest concern was the strategic shift from Beingmate’s traditional core business in baby formula.

A former executive at the company, who did not want to be named, told Caixin the name change signalled a loss of faith in the baby formula business.

The company continues to perform poorly. For the first half of this year, it reported a net loss of 140 million yuan ($31.4m) on revenue of 1.3 billion yuan ($290m).

Just after it inked the deal with Fonterra, Beingmate’s shares reached a high of 29.89 yuan ($6.72) but they have since fallen to 5.54 yuan ($1.24).

The one positive piece of news is that Beingmate has avoided being delisted It managed to report a $9m profit last year but the earnings were mainly driven by selling assets and receiving government compensation. A Canterbury farmer is lobbying for better protection of the Selwyn riverbed, after plucking more than 400 kilograms of rubbish from it in a few hours.

Deane Parker said the trailerload he and his sons gathered on an afternoon late last month included an ‘‘amazing’’ number of RTD bottles, along with computer monitors, furniture, plastic and household items.

He had been concerned by the amount of rubbish building up around the end of Hawkins Rd, which backs on to the river, and said the Canterbury regional council quickly and gratefully collected his haul.

But a huge amount remains, so Parker is hoping for better signage and enforcement to stop the Selwyn River being treated as a destination dumpsite.

‘‘I think something would be better than nothing ... it is really sad that the riverbed, even though it is not a beautiful place per se, is used in places as a dump,’’ he said.

The riverbed was a popular