NZX Acquires The Dairy Marketing Group - Developing NZX Data Business, Extending Reach To Australian Primary Sector

NZX has today announced the acquisition of the business assets of The Dairy Marketing Group Pty Limited in Australia.

The Melbourne-based company, established in 1996, publishes Dairy Week, which provides a comprehensive weekly news bulletin report on the New Zealand and Australian dairy industries, in addition to a bi-annual report on the farmgate milk price in Australia.

Dairy Week has a strong global subscriber base across Australia, New Zealand, the United States, the European Union and many other international regions.

NZX CEO Mark Weldon said, “The acquisition of the two key assets of The Dairy Marketing Group, the FarmGate Milk Price Report and, in particular Dairy Week, allows us to build our monitoring and knowledge of the Oceania dairy sectors, and is an excellent accompaniment to our existing dairy reports provided by NZX Agrifax. Given the customer interest in Dairy Week and NZX Agrifax products globally, the acquisition also extends our reach across Australia and further afield.”

Principal of The Dairy Marketing Group Trevor Watkin said, "Over the past twelve months we have been seeking alternative options to take Dairy Week to the next stage of its growth; in particular the provision of additional services for our Subscribers. NZX as a major independent information provider to the agricultural sector is uniquely placed to achieve this. We are extremely pleased that Dairy Week now entering its eighth year of publication will be developed even further by the resources of NZX."

NZX has links with both the New Zealand primary sector and Australian market sector. The acquisition of NZX Agrifax in 2006 extended the provision of market data across the New Zealand primary sector. NZX Agrifax has provided pricing transparency for the New Zealand primary sector for over 20 years, with information offerings relied upon by economists, banks, farmers and the media. AXE ECN, the electronic communications network that is a joint venture between NZX and five major Australian broking firms, was NZX’s first move into the Australian market.

“In our recent annual results we stated our intention to continue to assess and execute manageable “bolt-on” acquisitions within the data area. The acquisition of the assets of The Dairy Marketing Group shows this strategy at work. It meets all our key acquisition criteria and complements our established NZX Data portfolio of businesses,” said Weldon.