Van der Heyden quits NZX board

Friday 24th July 2009

Fonterra dairy cooperative chairman Henry van der Heyden this morning announced he is resigning from the board of NZX, which runs the New Zealand sharemarket, to counter any perceived conflicts of interest with the dairy cooperative's equity-raising and milk powder futures trading plans.

Van der Heyden has served on the NZX board since September 2005 and has been chairman of Fonterra since 2002.

"Over the coming years, Fonterra shareholders will be making decisions on capital structure that will be of vital importance to the co-operative and indeed to the national economy," said van der Heyden.

"I want to ensure that these deliberations are untainted whatsoever by any concerns about the NZX directorship - no matter how misplaced such concerns might be."

NZX chairman Andrew Harmos also stressed that neither the NZX board nor van der Heyden believed there to be any real conflict.

"The NZX board understands Mr van der Heyden's desire to erase any such perceptions, especially as Fonterra shareholders considered important matters relating to the Co-operative's future capital structure," said Harmos.

NZX is also in the process of developing a milk futures trading platform, and may use global milk powder auction prices as a benchmark, using Fonterra's globalDairyTrade platform.

NZX has made strategic acquisitions in recent months in agricultural data and publishing, and is increasingly seen to be concentrating on growth through stronger alignment with the primary production sector.

"It makes sense for NZX to promote stronger links between the rural sector and our capital markets - and we will continue to do so," said Harmos.

"In this context, it would be unusual if NZX/Fonterra did not have a strong and transparent relationship across a spectrum of business matters - not a relationship that is a source of tension or concern."

Businesswire.co.nz

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