Announcement
HALFYR: NZL: Interim Report to 31 December 2020
01:00pm
NZL
26/02/2021 13:00
HALFYR
PRICE SENSITIVE
REL: 1300 HRS New Zealand Rural Land Company Limited (NS)
HALFYR: NZL: Interim Report to 31 December 2020
Welcome to New Zealand Rural Land Company's (NZRLC) interim report for the
period 11 September 2020 to 31 December 2020.
We successfully raised $75 million through our Initial Public Offering (IPO)
in late 2020 and listed on the NZX Market. The support for our IPO was
pleasing with both institutional and retail investors joining our register.
With the IPO proceeds available to deploy, our focus is now on acquiring
rural land in the New Zealand dairy sector.
Our manager, New Zealand Rural Land Management Limited Partnership, is
progressing due diligence as expected on a number of dairy farms in the South
Island for NZRLC. The manager has been working closely with several
substantial operators undertaking due diligence investigations. It is
important to remind investors that despite assets being identified as
potential acquisitions prior to the IPO, extensive due diligence (e.g.
irrigation reports, soil testing, etc), does take time due to the size of the
assets we are looking to acquire. We anticipate being in a position to
announce the terms of an acquisition in several weeks.
As was discussed in our Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) our intention is
to acquire rural land across various industry sectors over time. While our
core, initial focus remains on acquiring dairy farms, we are having
preliminary discussions with potential tenants and vendors in other sectors
such as viticulture. This work will continue so that we are prepared to
diversify into other sectors once we have established an asset base in the
dairy sector.
Our intention remains to deploy all of the IPO proceeds towards acquiring
rural land in the dairy sector with a conservative level of gearing. Before
diversifying into other industry sectors we are likely to return to
shareholders for additional capital through a pro-rata rights issue.
An advantage for NZRLC in implementing its rural land strategy is being a New
Zealand investor and not requiring overseas investment approval to make
acquisitions. This means that NZRLC must keep foreign ownership of its shares
to less than 25%. At present our foreign ownership level is 22.12%. We
actively monitor this ownership level and have tools in our constitution to
ensure that we remain under this 25% level.
We would also like to remind shareholders the interim accounts attached to
this announcement produced by BDO are unaudited. Our annual financial
statements will be audited by PWC as is required by both the NZX listing
rules and the Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013.
We thank our shareholders for their support in our IPO and we look forward to
advising you on our acquisitions in the near future.
Rob Campbell
Chair
End CA:00368331 For:NZL Type:HALFYR Time:2021-02-26 13:00:56
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