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Good morning. This briefing summarises Halberd Capital’s preliminary commercial due-diligence on Aurora Eggs, New Zealand’s number-two egg producer.

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First, how the egg ends up on shelf. Grain arrives at the feed-mill, pullets are reared to sixteen weeks, layers then enter the farm for roughly sixty weeks, eggs are graded and packed, and finally distributed to retailers and food-service. End-of-lay hens are sold or rendered.

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A hen’s economics: peak lay between twenty-five and forty-five weeks delivers around three-hundred-and-thirty saleable eggs per bird per year. Feed is two-thirds of cost; pullet capex is amortised; flock mortality in NZ is five to seven percent.

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By-products matter at the margin. Spent hens fetch a low but real price, manure is sold as fertiliser, and breakage is rendered. Together they offset roughly one-and-a-half percent of Aurora’s cost base.

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The national flock is three-point-four to three-point-nine million hens. Supermarkets have pledged to remove all cage eggs by twenty-twenty-seven, avian-influenza culls in Otago have tightened supply, and the historic free-range premium is starting to compress as barn volume scales.

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Aurora holds an estimated twenty-two percent volume share, larger than any public source reports. More than sixty percent of its hens remain in colony cages, so the business must invest eighteen to twenty-two million NZ dollars to convert to barn systems.

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Our early findings: Aurora has strong branded shelf position and industry-leading feed conversion. The capex plan is technically sound but the timeline is tight. Biosecurity and local-council resource consents are gating items.

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Key questions for confirmatory diligence. One, the detailed capex schedule and its financing. Two, certainty of day-old pullet supply. Three, retailer contract renewals post-conversion. Four, long-term biosecurity mitigation. Five, synergy potential with the Halberd North-American platform. Six, management succession and retention.

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Thank you. We look forward to IC guidance on whether to proceed to full diligence.