ATM - A2 Milk Corporation Limited

[NT001]

Thanks for that, Harrie - that's very helpful. As you can probably see, I'm not very familiar with how these funds work, but would you say the shots are definitely being called by RBC and UBS fund managers, or by Perpetual managers operating on their behalf, and definitely not by investors using them as a cover for anonymous buying?

[bull....]

dean foods remoured not interested in takeover now
penrichs still unhappy about performance a2 after latest results cant see how they can globally expand

just what I have been saying for ages lol

[sb9]

dean foods remoured not interested in takeover now
penrichs still unhappy about performance a2 after latest results cant see how they can globally expand

just what I have been saying for ages lol

If Penrich aren't that happy why would they keep increasing their stake?

[bull....]

If Penrich aren't that happy why would they keep increasing their stake?

blocking stake there unhappy about financials - anyway theres article on scoop about it

[NT001]

Good morning NT, how do you know that many NZ farmers "are quietly moving their herds to A2"? Documentary evidence?

Good question Airedale. I’m not sure what you mean by “documentary evidence”, but it’s an indisputable fact, although we don't know the exact statistics, and we don't know how much of the shift is due to farmers' deliberate decision to select A2.

We do know that most of the semen being used by farmers for calf breeding is from A2 bulls, because they dominate the semen catalogue. This is occurring partly because of farmers’ awareness of the health case advanced for A2 milk, even though it’s not yet accepted by the industry as proven. There is anecdotal evidence of this. However, another factor is that the A2 bulls catalogued have superior production traits and are in-demand for that reason.

According to Professor Keith Woodford, about 40 percent of New Zealand cows now produce pure A2 beta-casein, and most of the rest produce a 50-50 mix of A1 and A2, while a few produce pure A1.

<https://keithwoodford.wordpress.com/...sein-evidence/>

In another article he has stated that “some farmers have been quietly converting away from A1 beta-casein for ten years and more.” As an adviser to the dairy sector who is in contact directly and indirectly with many individual farmers he would know.

<https://keithwoodford.wordpress.com/2014/09/08/the-industry-politics-of-a1-and-a2-milk/>

There are various strategies that can be used to convert a herd, and some are faster than others. The faster ones generally involve higher costs and greater disruption of milk production.

For those interested, the mathematics of herd conversion are essentially straightforward. Every cow carries two protein genes (alleles), each of which is either A1 or A2, and these determine the A1-A2 status of the milk it produces. A cow is known (after testing) to be either A1A1 or A1A2 or A2A2. Production of A2 milk (with no A1) requires all cows milked to be A2A2.

If a farmer only uses semen from pure A2A2 bulls, the resulting calves will be as follows:
All calves from A2A2 cows will be A2A2.
All calves from A1A1 cows will be A1A2.
Statistically 50% of calves from A1A2 cows will be A1A2 and 50% will be A2A2.

So even without any testing of cows or calves, the herd inevitably gets moved gradually in the direction of pure A2, and this must be happening. But because there’s quite a time-lag between a cow being born and producing its first calf and that calf itself giving birth and starting to produce milk, the process is slow. It takes several generations, and a farmer can’t really be sure the herd is pure A2 until every cow and calf is tested. Part of the problem of course is that half of each calf generation is male. It is generally estimated that full conversion will take about 10 years unless the process is speeded up by culling non-A2A2 cows and heifer calves, and/or by using sex-selected semen which cuts out the wasteful production of male progeny in each calf cohort.

[skid]

Ive not been following closely but aside from the exposer,how are things different now, than before news of the possible takeover-(now that it looks doubtful)-the SP is still well above where it was before.

[Harrie]

Thanks for that, Harrie - that's very helpful. As you can probably see, I'm not very familiar with how these funds work, but would you say the shots are definitely being called by RBC and UBS fund managers, or by Perpetual managers operating on their behalf, and definitely not by investors using them as a cover for anonymous buying?

Perpetual have the mandate and are judged by those granting the mandate on their performance. RBC are a global fund manager who have appointed Perpetual to look for companies within Australia that are showing potential. The exposure therefore fits within some of the specific profiles that meet RBC's investment criteria such as ethical, small companies or alpha type investment pools. These funds are then added to similar profiled master funds on behalf of RBC's own clients. For example if the RBC had an ethical fund called the "RBC global ethical fund" it could have a whole heap of individual shares and pooled funds from around the world. One of the assets within the "RBC global ethical fund" would be the Perpetual ethical fund.
If they were buying for someone else that would need to be disclosed as they have done for RBC and USB.

[QFD Sage]

Has this thread lost some pages recently?

[bucko]

Yeh i think something happened over the weekend? Seems the NTL thread was removed for no apparant reason and few people are now banned after making a few negative comments against the moderators haha

[Harrie]

I think that this site has died since the moderators have thrown out some very worthwhile and controversial contributors.