Alliance plans to offload 65% of shares for $250m
Alliance Group has announced plans to sell a 65% stake in the farmer-owned co-operative to Irish meat processor Dawn Meats Group for $250 million.
In an article published on Friday, The Irish Times says the family-owned company has emerged as the front-runner to take a controlling stake in Alliance. It understands the bid involves a payment of NZ$270 million (€140 million) for the 70% stake in the co-operative.
Alliance Group chair Mark Wynne has responded to the media report, pointing out that at the start of this capital raise process, they made it clear that they wouldn’t be commenting on any market speculation.
“Our goal is to secure more than $200 million to strengthen our balance sheet and provide a much more stable financial foundation for the business.
“Because of the commercial sensitivities involved and the confidentiality agreements now in place, we are limited in how much we can share.”
Wynne says Alliance will be providing another update to farmers later this month ahead of a series of road show meetings followed by a formal shareholder vote in the next few months.
“We have the full support of our banking syndicate with continued financing. There is confidence in our performance, in the capital raise process, the investor offers and our farmer-shareholders.”
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The Irish Times article claims this is the Irish company’s second tilt at a major acquisition in NZ’s meat sector in a decade – speculating that Dawn Meats tried to buy a stake in Silver Fern Farms in 2016 but was outbid by Shanghai Maling.
The report also says Alliance’ s farmer shareholders will be briefed on August 12th on the potential sale.
“It is understood that Dawn Meats has pulled ahead of several rival NZ meat exporters and the Saudi Public Investment Fund-owned SALIC after Alliance called for non-binding indicative offers in February,” the report says.
According to Dawn Meats’ website, it processes 3.5 million sheep and 1 million cattle annually, processing 300,000 tonnes of meat per annum.
