How to invest
You need to be a current landowner or lessee of producing kiwifruit orchards within New Zealand to purchase shares in Zespri. Learn the process of buying and selling shares here.
How to buy shares
You can buy or sell shares in two different ways:
On-market - where shares are traded on the USX trading platform.
Off-market – where shares are transferred privately between two parties, without using the services of a share broker.
We explain more about these different processes below.
Zespri shares are traded on the Unlisted Securities Exchange (USX) platform and shareholders must register with one of the six approved USX brokers to be able to trade on-market. You can find the list on the USX website.
The USX brokers check with us that buyers are eligible “producers,” and they confirm how many shares the buyer is entitled to purchase (share cap). They then place a buy or sell order with USX, match traders and notify Computershare to update the share register once a transaction has settled. Please note that brokers charge a fee and there may be anti money laundering (AML) requirements when you register.
Essentially, an off-market transfer is a change of ownership as the shares aren’t being traded on a trading platform.
When an agreement has been made to conduct a transfer between two parties, we recommend that the buyer contacts us before any payment is made, to make sure that you’re eligible to purchase shares and to confirm how many shares you’re entitled to purchase. Once we’ve given confirmation, both parties must complete and sign the relevant sections of the Off-Market Transfer form and return the original completed form either to us or Computershare, our share registry office.
Once the relevant documentation is received and approved, the share registry office conducts the share transfer. Both parties will receive written confirmation that the transfer has taken place. If you don’t receive any paperwork, please let us know.
How many shares am I entitled to buy?
How many shares you can buy depends on whether you’re a current producer already supplying fruit to us, or a new entrant and haven’t started supplying fruit yet.
If you’re a current producer, you can hold up to six shares per tray of average historical production. This is a 6:1 ratio. This maximum entitlement is also known as your ‘share cap’. We calculate your average historical production using the average of the best two of the last five completed seasons, because we know crop volumes can vary from year to year for many different reasons. We upload the final production figures into our system for the year every April and run calculations to recalculate your share entitlement.
If you’re a new entrant with a greenfield orchard, you’re entitled to hold up to 1.5 shares per 1 tray of ‘deemed production’ this is a 1.5:1 ratio. We use the Regional Production Analysis to calculate your deemed production. This is a summary of average trays per hectare supplied per region which is published in our Annual Report.
If you’re wondering what entitlement you have, please contact the Zespri Share team or for more information on the priority or subsidiary holding please read our Shareholder information page.
Who else is involved?
Reap is a mobile IR platform that allows shareholders and non-shareholders to follow Zespri and stay informed on important updates within the company. You’ll find our latest publications, industry updates, annual report and other communications. You can also view our financials, including our dividend history and share price. Download the Reap app to your phone or smart device through the App Store and Google Play.
Find out more about the app here.
A 'market maker' is a broker firm that assumes the risk of holding a certain number of shares of a particular company. The market maker will buy and sell shares for the purposes of promoting share liquidity and reducing price volatility.
From 1st November 2016, Zespri Group Limited (ZGL) contracted Craigs Investment Partners (CIP) to provide market maker services for ZGL shares. CIP are limited under the signed services agreement to holding no more than 0.125% of issued ZGL shares, and the voting rights on any shares held by CIP for the purposes of market making under the terms of the signed services agreement have been forfeited.
Computershare have managed Zespri’s share register for over 21 years and provide a range of services to our shareholders including:
Maintaining the Zespri shareholder registry
Provision of the Investor Centre portal where our shareholders can access and maintain their Zespri shareholding online
Management of our shareholder enquiries by phone, email and post
Sending Zespri communications to our shareholders by either email or post
Processing of USX market trades and off market transfers
- Calculation and payment of our dividend payments
- Management and attendance of the Zespri Annual General Meeting – this includes the email or post of the Notice of Meeting, collation of proxies, registering our shareholders at our meeting venue (both physical and online) and final vote counting.
The Unlisted Securities Exchange (USX) is a cost-efficient and simple share trading platform for companies to provide liquidity and keep their shareholders informed. Trading in securities quoted on USX can only be undertaken via brokers who then arrange settlement of the trade.
You'll need to register with USX to have access to detailed information such as our profile, market depth, and full announcements. Without a log in, you will only have access to basic information such as the quote sheet, announcement headlines, and trade history.
During the registration process, the only data USX collects are your username, name, and email address. You’ll automatically be added to its weekly email updates and newsletter distribution lists and will also be able to opt into receiving daily closing prices and announcements notifications via email if you choose. Register at www.usx.co.nz.
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