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Fonterra has been notified that rating agency Standard and Poor's has downgraded the co-op's credit rating from A to A-.
Chief financial officer Lukas Paravicini says "Our underlying financial strength and credit quality remain strong. This is recognised by Standard and Poor's maintaining our rating in the 'A' category and reflects our fundamental strength and financial discipline.
"It is important to note that the revised rating will not have any impact on Fonterra's strategy or on farmer shareholder payout."
Paravicini says the co-op's current debt is at expected levels for this stage of the investment cycle.
"We carefully planned our investment strategy by first reducing our gearing over a number of years to enable us to make higher levels of investment in key strategic opportunities.
"These investments are making the co-operative stronger and positioning us well for the future. We have built additional manufacturing capacity in our home base of New Zealand which is improving returns by giving more product options during the peak production period and our planned investments in China are building our presence in our number one strategic market."
Paravicini says Fonterra is continuing its strong financial discipline, including capital investment management, setting a prudent advance rate payment to farmers for the current season, and applying its dividend policy to ensure an ongoing retention of a portion of earnings.
He says Fonterra are progressing well with their business transformation and this will further strengthen their financial position. "Global dairy prices are also recovering which is a positive development, particularly for our farmer shareholders."
Standard and Poor's noted that its new methodology for agricultural co-operatives introduced in March does not always adequately capture the significant financial flexibility, and hence strength, of the co-op.
"Given this, we are disappointed that Standard and Poor's has not reconfirmed its rating from April, especially when global dairy prices have significantly improved and we have continued our strong financial discipline."
OPINION: There is zero chance that someone who joined Fonterra as a lobbyist, then served as a general manager of Fonterra's nutrient management programme, and sat on the board of Export NZ, a division of lobbyist group Business New Zealand, doesn't understand that local butter (and milk and cheese) prices are set by the international commodity price.
Kiwis love their butter, and that's great because New Zealand produces some of the best butter in the world. But when the price of butter goes up, it's tough for some, particularly when many other grocery staples have also gone up and the heat goes on co-operative Fonterra, the country's main butter maker. Here the co-op explains why butter prices are so high right now.
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