Maximum 1000 of Goodman shares

Retail investors will get a maximum of just 1000 shares in Goodman Fielder, no matter how many they sought.

That's a thin slice of a company which owns such well-recognised brands as Molenberg, Meadow Fresh, and Tararua.

Advertisements placed by the transtasman food giant, which will list on the New Zealand and Australian stock exchanges today, showed an application for the minimum amount allowed, NZ$2000, would result in an investor being allocated 937 shares.

Those seeking to spend NZ$2500 or more will get 1000 shares, worth NZ$2130 at the final price of NZ$2.13 per share.

Australian investors have also been allocated 1000, even if more than A$2000 of shares were sought.

One market commentator said yesterday that heavy scaling of the retail offering would be a sign of the strong institutional demand for the company, floated by Graeme Hart's Burns Philp.

Others have previously said there was aggressive scaling-back of allocations for financial institutions after strong demand from Asia, Europe and the US.

But some New Zealand fund managers, including Tower New Zealand, had said the price was too high. Several have pointed to the maturity of the company's brands.

Burns Philp revealed last week it had elected to sell the maximum number of shares signalled in the prospectus, keeping just 20 per cent although it could have retained as much as 40 per cent.

At the final price of A$2 a share, or NZ$2.13 a share, Goodman Fielder has a market capitalisation of A$2.65 billion (NZ$2.85 billion). That puts it at the top end of the range indicated by the A$1.85 to A$2 a share price range detailed in the prospectus.

The company will carry a weighting of about 2 per cent in the benchmark NZSX 50 index, meaning it will be ranked about 13th when it makes its debut.

The shares will list at 2pm on the New Zealand exchange.