MediaWorks’ awful year, How to solve Landcorp’s problem, Time for Fonterra to split?

In NBR Print today: Almost exactly a year ago, ex-NZX boss Mark Weldon was appointed MediaWorks’ group chief executive. He was handed a company that had bootstrapped back into the black after being placed in receivership 12 months before. Mr Weldon declined to talk to NBR on the occasion of his first anniversary leading the organisation. That might be because – according to a number of knowledgeable industry insiders – MediaWorks’ nose is now definitely pointed in a downward direction. Nick Grant looks back over the past year.

High debt and low milk prices are causing strife for some dairy farmers but big state-owned dairy farmer Landcorp has other worries. A decade ago the company embarked on an ambitious project to convert former forestry land to dairying, in partnership with a consortium of wealthy Auckland property magnates. Low commodity prices are now threatening the viability of the project, prompting comparisons with fellow SOE Solid Energy which fell into administration this month. It’s further evidence, if any were needed, that SOEs have to go. Tim Hunter reports

The 2001 mega-merger increasingly looks like a mistake, calling for bold decisions by farmers, writes columnist Matthew Hooton. Farmers don’t want to give up their co-op and, fair enough, they own it. But after 15 years of failing to break out of the commodity trap, it is surely time to bring out the old plans to separate what successful FMCG businesses Fonterra has managed to build and to raise the external capital to make the most of them. Talk that such expansion could be funded out of Fonterra’s balance sheet is nonsense, especially with current debt levels.

There were no plans by the government to crack down on property investment – until ministers saw the response to a Reserve Bank speech, reports Rob Hosking. Papers obtained by the National Business Review under the Official Information Act show that within three days of a speech by Reserve Bank deputy governor Grant Spencer on the issue, officials were cobbling together policy options in a rush. There was a late-night meeting on a Sunday between top IRD and Treasury officials and Finance Minister Bill English, with officials urged to come up with options that could at least be announced in the government budget.

Equity crowdfunding has been legal in New Zealand for just one year but the capital raising method has made a dramatic entrance. Calida Smylie reports that in the past year, $12.4 million has been raised from 3503 investors for 21 New Zealand companies. The typical successful capital raise in New Zealand has been $590,000 on a pre-money valuation of $3.85 million, giving an average 14% equity of the business to crowd investors. But the sector has not developed without criticism, mainly of high valuations and potentially unrealistic forecasts. New data shows how the equity crowdfunding sector has developed in its first year of life – and it seems it skipped the crawling stage.

The Home Owners and Buyers Association is warning people to take independent legal advice before joining either of two multi-million dollar cladding class actions. Court proceedings in separate Auckland and Wellington class actions against cladding manufacturers will be filed before the end of the year. The class actions are claiming the companies designed, manufactured and sold defective cladding leading to leaky homes . Sally Lindsay reports.

All this and more in today’s National Business Review. Out now.