Cooperatives

Overview

We understand that while the cooperative sector is significant, it is often not appreciated. According to research commissioned by Cooperative Business New Zealand in 2021, cooperatives in New Zealand:

Comprise 13% of our GDP
Have over 1.5m members
Have the highest ratios of gross revenue to GDP and employees to population in the world.

We understand cooperatives

We advise cooperatives, mutuals, and businesses operating on cooperative principles on a full range of issues including:

Establishment
Capital structure
Constitutional issues
Securities and financial law compliance
Operational issues
Mergers and acquisition.

We also present at seminars on cooperative company issues.

We are affiliated with Cooperative Business NZ

We also advise, and are a corporate associate member of, Cooperative Business NZ. Cooperative Business NZ is the industry body for the sector on all legislative and regulatory issues.

We work with a number of cooperatives

We advise numerous cooperative clients including NZ Hops, ProCare, Zespri, Seasonal Solutions Cooperative, EastPack and Capricorn Society.

Experience

Sector/Expertise

Work highlights

Zespri

We have advised Zespri from its establishment on all major regulatory, corporate and capital structure issues.

Eastpack

We advised Eastpack, New Zealand's largest kiwifruit post harvest operator, on its capital restructure and regulated offers of debt and equity securities.

New Zealand Hops

We advise New Zealand Hops on all aspects of its business, including corporate structure, supply, licensing of new varieties of hops, and marketing arrangements.

Wealthpoint

We helped to establish Wealthpoint as a cooperative of financial adviser businesses.

ProCare

We helped to establish ProCare, the largest provider of primary care in New Zealand, as a cooperative of general practices.

Cooperative Business NZ

We advise Cooperative Business NZ on all regulatory issues including obtaining Securities Act Exemption Notices, the application of IFRS accounting standards to cooperative shares, and development and implementation of the Financial Adviser and Financial Market Conduct legislation.

Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and the Ministry of Primary Industries

We advised the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and the Ministry of Primary Industries on the Dairy Industry Restructuring Act 2001 and all subsequent reviews of the Act, the capital structure of Livestock Improvement Corporation and proposed trading of Fonterra shares among Fonterra farmers.

Our team