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, down from NZ$22.3 two seasons earlier
- 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?
- THE ACCOUNTANT'S CHAIRThe Round NumberYou wrote the plan, you sent it, and the bank replied through you. Three clients in one family are waiting to hear what you say.
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.
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