Restructuring fails to deliver savings

AUCKLAND: Fonterra Cooperative Group’s 2015 ‘‘Velocity’’ restructuring does not appear to have achieved the savings expected and pushed up the dominant dairy exporter’s costs used in setting the regulated milk price.

The dairy exporter bumped up its administration and overhead costs for the 2019 and 2020 seasons by $20 million in each year in calculating the milk price, according to the Commerce Commission’s final report on the 2019 milk price.

The regulator said the extra costs related ‘‘either to the failure to achieve efficiencies provided for in the 201516 setting of provisions for administrative and other overhead costs or to errors in the allocation process’’ in 201516 when the regulator was of the view that adjustments for the Velocity restructuring could be included as nonrecurring items.

‘‘It appears that up to $20 million of the costs being reinstated relates to the original Velocity adjustments,’’ the commission noted in a footnote in the final report.

Fonterra has provided for an additional $90 million of administration and overhead costs over two years as what a notional processor would spend to be efficient. Of that, $45 million in 2019 was recoverable but nonrecurring, and the other $45 million was ongoing and recoverable in 2020.

The regulator said Fonterra did not comply with its governing legislation by lodging the information after the July 1 statutory deadline. Because of that tardiness, the commission was unable to reach a conclusion on whether those costs provided an appropriate incentive for Fonterra to operate efficiently. It will take a more intensive look in the 2020 review.

The Commerce Commission is required to test whether Fonterra calculated the milk price in line with legislative efficiency and contestability principles at the end of every season, as a means to ensure the country’s dominant milk processor is not abusing its market position.

Deputy chair Sue Begg said Fonterra’s calculation was largely consistent with the law, but Fonterra’s late filing of the administrative costs meant the regulator could not form a view on whether they were appropriate. She also said Fonterra’s asset beta — a component used to calculate the cost of capital — remained too high to be practically feasible.

A beta is a measure of the volatility, or systemic risk, of a security or a portfolio in comparison to the market as a whole. A lower asset beta allows a higher milk price to be paid.

The report said Fonterra would commission a fresh review of the asset beta to be introduced in 202021. That would align the proposed date of proposed legislative changes.

Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor tabled legislation to amend the Dairy Industry Restructuring Act limiting Fonterra’s discretion in setting the asset beta.

It would also spell out that Fonterra can pay a different farm gate milk price to its shareholder farmers from the base milk price. — BusinessDesk