Natural Dairy New Zealand has shelved its plans for a $1.5b investment in dairy infrastructure here, terminating its agreement with controversial businesswoman May Wang.

Natural Dairy suspended trading in its shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange as it pursued the deal, which included acquiring assets such as livestock and milk processing plants.

But a dispute has erupted between Natural Dairy and the exchange over its terms, forcing Natural Dairy to ditch the May Wang deal and resume trading.

Spokesman Bill Ralston says the decision doesn’t affect the company’s goals, it just slows the process down.

“I think they’ve quite rightly gone back to basics and said 'What’s the first building block?', and that’s acquiring the Crafar dairy farms.

"The second block may be acquiring dairy plants, and then there’s a third block, all of which have to be approved by Government along the way, so it’s just become a much slower process.

"It is still their intention to acquire the farms as a starting point – what happens from there is subject to Government approvals, and taking it step by step.”

The Hong Kong Stock Exchange claimed the deal with May Wang amounted to a reverse takeover, and would require a new listing.