Merger risks to be aired at meeting
Disgruntled Alliance Group shareholders have gathered sufficient support to force a special meeting to discuss the potential benefits and risks of a merger with fellow cooperative Silver Fern Farms.
Balfour farmer Jeff Grant, who with rural accountant and farmer Gaye Cowie has been gathering the required 5 per cent of proxy forms needed to force the special meeting, said they had sent 7 per cent to the company for verification.
The move matches a similar one by Silver Fern Farms shareholders to
This debate has been going at a reasonably heavy pace for the past
eight years.
Jeff Grant, Alliance Group shareholder
force a special meeting within their own meat co-operative.
Grant said their campaign started slowly but gathered momentum last week with proxies coming in from farmers they hadn’t even contacted.
He said he has spoken to Alliance chairman Murray Taggart who understood shareholders have the right to seek the special meeting where they can vote on a resolution for the board to provide shareholders with a full analysis of the potential benefits and risks of Alliance Group and Silver Fern Farms merging into one co-operative entity, along with a comprehensive risk mitigation plan verified by an independent firm.
As an investor in Briscoe Group, Grant said he has “read more about its strategy and the direction of the company in the back pages of the newspaper than I’ve ever read about the strategy of the two meat co-ops.
“When you consider that farmer shareholders’ livelihoods depend on what goes on beyond the farmgate they need to know more, in terms of their own investment, what the future holds for them.”
He expects the special meeting to be held before the end of next month.