Wishful thinking. Clearly stated $40m fully underwritten placement and UP TO $3m SPP !!
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Bellamy's shares down 4% in Oz today on very light trading. Looks like it has lost its fizz. Whereas A2M is up 3.6% over there on heavy trading.
Building a new powder plant in Oz would be only half the trick. Remember it took Chinese officials months to approve the Synlait plant in Canterbury, which manufactures a2MC's infant formula for export, even though it is largely Chinese-owned. Synlait currently has more capacity reserved for a2MC to increase its infant formula throughput, much of which actually goes to Australia, not direct to China.
a2MC will regain control of the NZ a2 milk market in 2017 when Fresha's licence expires, and we can be sure the company is already working on plans to increase exports from this country when that happens.
Another possibility that perhaps should not be ignored is that Jeff O'Neill, a2MC's CEO for the US, might stitch together a deal with Deans to export a2 infant formula to China out of the US. The US has a huge dairy herd (partly a2) which is currently facing a price downturn a bit like the one Fonterra faces, and Deans has the plants and infrastructure that could be utilised. Might not need any capital-raise. An arrangement something like a2MC's deal in the UK with Muller Wiseman could provide a quick fix. It's a time for lateral thinking.
Okay. so a few traders in Oz are making a nice margin temporarily on flogging infant formula off via courier to China, and it's getting up the noses of some angry Aussie shoppers, but is it really "disastrous" for us shareholders? a2MC is still selling the stuff at a profit on the Aussie market, and I've seen no proof that the quantities are so huge that we shareholders are being robbed blind. I don't think so.
It seems a lot of this hype is being stirred by the "Singles Day" phenomenon which is not 365 days a year. Most Chinese who are paying silly prices for Bellamy's formula wouldn't really have a clue why, and Bellamy's capacity to ramp up production to meet astronomical demand is very limited because of the problems around organic certification, which a2MC does not have.
Chinese consumers also don't fully understand the benefits of a2, but they soon will, because human clinical test results involving Chinese consumers are due for release quite soon. And my expectation is that the results will show a2 beats its competitors hands down, including organic competitors.
The immediate problem will remain, though, how to push more product into the short term pipeline. I would expect this to be one of the most interesting topics for discussion at the coming ASM. The current infant formula "explosion" has caught everyone a bit by surprise, and with China's sudden relaxation of its one-child rule the race is now on.
But a2MC's strategy has always been a longterm one. It can be tweaked a little to respond to surges in market demand, but the long term issue for a2 has never been whether its SP can get above $1 - it has always been a question of how long it takes to exceed $5 or $10, and at what point farmers in major milk-producing countries decide en masse to stop producing medically hazardous A1 milk, and producers such as Fonterra accept the inevitable (which they already know but won't admit). This whole thing has got a long long way to go yet.
Careful here. Chinese consumers are actually very well informed, much more so than most westerners. They research EVERYTHING that they do/give to their children because they are so important (1 child policy). They also read English quite well. To say they "don't fully understand the benefits of a2" is a bit stereotypical, I suspect you would be surprised if you asked them.
Having lived in China for a number of years, I understand the people fairly well. I was actually asked about a2 milk while there a couple of times when people with kids found out I came from NZ.
Having lived there you would know the one child policy has been expanded to two , hence some of the excitement in this sector ....