GDT acquisition completed

The deal to acquire the Global Dairy Trade (GDT) has been completed. Dairy co-op Fonterra, New Zealand’s Exchange (NZX) and the European Energy Exchange (EEX) each have equal ownership stakes in the GDT, which is a trading platform for dairy derivatives. The partnership was announced back in February and has been awaiting regulatory clearance.

Fonterra CFO Marc Rivers said that the confirmation of the partnership was important for the co-op and global dairy participants widely.

“The move to a broader ownership structure marks the next step in the evolution of GDT — giving it a presence in prominent international dairy producing regions, with greater participation expected at GDT events.

“It will bring more participants and transactions, stimulating further growth of risk management contracts available on financial trading platforms.

“This creates opportunities for the growth of financial tools to better manage price volatility — which is something many industry participants, from farmers through to customers, are exposed to.”

GDT Chief Executive Dr Eric Hansen said: “The GDT team is looking forward to working with EEX and NZX as strategic partners with strong interests in dairy and established reputations as regulated exchanges to enhance GDT’s role as an independent, neutral and transparent price discovery platform.”

NZX Chief Executive Mark Peterson said the partnership will strengthen GDT’s market reach, which will prove beneficial both for New Zealand dairy farmers and customers.

“At a time of geopolitical and macroeconomic instability, GDT’s vision to expand its global reach and provide better transparency in dairy commodity prices, is more important than ever for dairy market stakeholders,” Peterson said.

“It aligns with NZX’s strategy of growing capital markets, connecting with more businesses, and creating greater value for shareholders and investors. In GDT, NZX is excited to be working with the best partners to achieve this.”

EEX Chief Strategy Officer Dr Tobias Paulun said: “Being a shareholder of GDT fits perfectly to our strategy of taking asset classes which we already successfully serve to a global dimension.

“EEX looks forward to supporting GDT’s growth vision with NZX and Fonterra with the aim to create value for the global dairy value chain by further improving price discovery and price risk management instruments.”

Fonterra has stated that its proceeds on the sale total $35 million.

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