Kauri Dairy Holdings Ltd
DAIRY · TWO FARMS · WAIKATO
Third-generation dairy across two farms, 620,000 kg of milk solids between them. The succession proposal reached the bank through the accountant rather than the family, in a payout year at the top of the cycle.
Kauri Dairy Holdings Ltd is a fictional construction. The figures, relationships and decisions on this page are illustrative — built for teaching, not drawn from any real borrower or transaction.
// WHAT WAS ASKED
- Existing
- NZ$13.0m term + NZ$1.2m seasonal
- Proposed
- Split across two successor entities
- Also asked
- Personal guarantee release + NZ$2.0m seasonal
- Arrived via
- The accountant
- Milk solids
- 620k kgMS across two farms
- Payout (FY25)
- NZ$8.60/kgMS, a cycle high
- Debt per kgMS
- NZ$21.0, against a sector median near $19
- Interest cover
- 2.4×
- Owner drawings
- Up 65% over two years
// WHAT THE BANK DID
Approved as two standalone underwrites rather than one split: each successor entity tested at a lower payout and visited on farm, with the guarantee release staged across two demonstrated seasons.
The reasoning is in the file itself — the four options that were on the table, how readers answered, and the senior banker's read of the same numbers.
// READ FROM OTHER CHAIRS
The same file, and the same week, from the chairs of the people on the other side of it.
- THE PATRIARCH'S CHAIRThe Last SignatureThirty years, spotless conduct, and the bank wants your name on the paper for two more seasons. What do you tell the accountant?
- THE DAUGHTER'S CHAIRA Landlord With DebtYou keep your career and get the second farm — a landlord with debt, a sharemilker you did not choose, and a payout you cannot set. What do you say yes to?
Nothing further is recorded here about Kauri Dairy Holdings. This record holds published files only — when the business next appears in an issue, its entry grows.