Fonterra Shareholders' Fund

Unitholders are entitled to attend and vote at unitholder meetings, and to elect three directors of the Manager of the Fund.

Unitholders do not have any right to attend or vote or request the Fonterra Farmer Custodian to attend or vote, at any meeting of farmer shareholders. The Fonterra Farmer Custodian also does not have any voting rights at meetings of farmer shareholders, except on certain interest group resolutions. Situations, where interest group resolutions are required, are expected to be rare.

Maximum holding restriction

Under the Trust Deed, no Unit Holder and its associates (excluding Fonterra) can hold, or have a “relevant interest” in, more than 15% of the Units on issue or 15% of the voting rights in the Fund, whichever is lower.

The Trust Deed also contains enforcement provisions to ensure compliance by Unit Holders with this restriction.  If Fonterra determines that a Unit Holder is in breach of this restriction, Fonterra may determine that the unit holder is not entitled to vote some or all of the units it holds in breach of the restriction and can require that the unit holder dispose of the units held in breach of the restriction. If the Units are not disposed of, the Manager or Fonterra can arrange for their disposal.

The Fund Size Risk Management Policy is designed to address the following requirements:

• the key goals of the Fund are to supplement liquidity in the Fonterra Shareholders’ Market, thereby promoting price convergence,
• and to provide flexibility for Farmer Shareholders;
• the size of the Fund should remain within specified limits; and
• the Fund size should be managed based on graduated responses.

It is important to note that a change in the number of units on issue does not, of itself, result in a dilution in per unit measures of financial performance (such as distributions per unit or earnings per unit). That is because changes in the number of units on issue need not (and typically will not) reflect any change in the number of shares on issue.