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The Silver Fern Farms/Shanghai Maling joint venture proposal is getting nastier the longer it drags out.
The drama is not helped by the company's often off-hand dismissal of some shareholders' concerns about the deal and recent delay in getting Overseas Investment Office approval for the deal to be finalised.
Until OIO and the relevant ministers decide, the process is stalled in a vacuum swirling with rumour and innuendo. The longer this plays out the more conspiracy theories and wild claims will be made by the dissidents.
Clearly a minority group of disgruntled shareholders, in cahoots with NZ First, are determined to overturn the deal at all costs, arguing that their concerns centre purely on process and legal aspects. In fact they just don't like it, but they lack the intestinal fortitude and courage of their convictions to say this outright.
Reports by the Financial Markets Authority and the Companies Office, over the validity of the Silver Fern Farms resolution process and its directors' actions , should have dispelled these disgruntled shareholders' case but, like political blowhards in New Zealand First, they dismiss these investigations as not having produced the result they wanted.
The blistering arrogance of this small minority underlies their mistaken belief in a right to overturn the wishes of the overwhelming majority of SFF shareholders – the 82% (at least) who bothered to vote last October in favour of the joint venture.
More proof of the depths this disgruntled minority will dive to is seen in their putting about unattributed, unidentified media claims out of Australia that Shanghai Maling wants to pull out of the deal. This is the same kind of 'reputable' Australian media scuttlebutt that falsely claimed a few weeks ago that Fonterra was showing Theo Spierings the door.
SFF and Shanghai Maling insist they are committed to this venture and so it seems are the silent majority of SFF shareholders. It is time the majority told the vocal minority, in no uncertain terms, to pack up their tents and get out of the company if they are so unhappy.
Should OIO and ministerial approval be granted, the board of SFF would have no option but to honour the contract with Shanghai Maling, provided all agreed contractual obligations are met. The risk of not doing so would cost SFF and its shareholders a lot of money and you can guarantee the disaffected 5% wouldn't stump up with costs.
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