In June, Sharesies went live with a tailored share trading solution that makes it easier for Fonterra farmers to manage their investment in the Co-op. It followed extensive testing with a pilot group of farmers to ensure key activities such as buying and selling Co-op shares or switching between any personal and business accounts or different farms would be as straight forward as possible.
“We’re delighted that through our partnership with Sharesies we’re able to offer Co-op farmers an improved trading experience and new features to support liquidity under our Flexible Shareholding capital structure that was introduced last year,” says Anne Douglas, Group Director for Farm Source.
Sharesies is a New Zealand-owned wealth app that helps people easily manage their shares, savings and Kiwisaver all in one place. More than 600,000 New Zealanders and Australia use the platform. The previous trading platform technology for Fonterra shares had been in place since 2012 and the existing vendor agreement was due to expire.
“This presented an opportunity for us to review and enhance the trading experience for Fonterra farmers,” Anne adds. “As was the case with the previous platform, trading through Sharesies means no brokerage fees. We’re also excited about some new features the new platform makes possible.”
Those new features include:
· Share trading on mobile devices, as well as via a web browser.
· Notifications to alert when the share price moves to a level that farmers are interested in.
· Ability to place an order for shares without having funds in trading accounts. Previously, shareholders had to have money in their account to place an order.
· View holdings for multiple farms under one log-in.
· Ability to switch between Fonterra shares and personal investments held through Sharesies such as shares, savings or Kiwisaver under one log-in.
With Sharesies you can manage your shareholding at your convenience – via the Sharesies app on your mobile, tablet or via the Sharesies website on your computer.
If you had a share trading account on the previous trading platform, you should have received instructions on how to set up and activate your Sharesies account. You can also check out details on the Farm Source website to support your switch to Sharesies or find out how to open a new account.
Since going live with Sharesies in mid-June we have already had over 2,000 entities sign up for an account.
As always, if you’re thinking of buying or selling Fonterra shares, we recommend you seek financial advice. For further information and instructions on how to use Sharesies, visit nzfarmsource.co.nz/sharesies