George Adams: Synlait Board Chair ahead of the vote on a proposed capital raise

Synlait could be going from the cream of the crop to skimming the edge of survival. 

Shareholders of the dairy processor are gathering at its Dunsandel site today to vote on a proposed $218 million capital raise. 

Board chair George Adams told Mike Hosking his confidence is high, and it would allow Synlait to move forward from the de-leveraging. 

He says they'll then focus on drawing their farmers back and delivering good business. 

If voted down, Synlait has warned it will end up in some sort of insolvency process. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The day for sin Lays, they look to rise as
this capital shareholder is going to be voting at nine
this morning on the two hundred and eighteen million dollar proposal.
So where does the support for the sin Lay board
chair George Adams respect Well, that's George, very good morning.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
To you very much, thanks for having me and not
at all the.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
Level of confidence you go into today with is what
HI good so Bright Dairy are in? Is it fair
to say that.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Yes, it is? It is. I think the only challenge
obviously is I think the vote around the sorry, the
break vote as opposed to the the A two plasment.

Speaker 1 (00:34):
Just explain that for people who haven't followed the intricacies
of this.

Speaker 2 (00:38):
Yeah. So basically neither Bright nor A two can vote
on their own placement, which means that in terms of
the A two placement, Break can vote on it. And
given that there are roughly half of all of the
votes that canv do on it, you'd have to say
that one looks fully assured. In terms of the Break
Street carry on the Break placement, Break can vote on it,

(01:04):
which means that there's only sixty percent roughly off the
balance off the charlolders who can vote on that and
a to have voted positively. They have twenty percent of
that sixty, which means that there's still two thirds of
the book coming in from the minority shareholders.

Speaker 1 (01:18):
Okay, the New Zealand Shareholders Association called a dead rat.
How many people voting today are going? I wish we
weren't here and this is crap, But I'm in too deep.

Speaker 2 (01:31):
Not sure to be honest, I know that there are
a quite a few people who have spoken to who
are part of forty one percent minority, who are just
relieved the business is actually not going under and has
an opportunity to retrieve some value. So I think that
dead rat comment. Look, it's a kind of a nice headline,
but I think it possibly oversteps skins.

Speaker 1 (01:51):
Okay, so the credit facilities, and I detailed this on
the program yesterday. The number of banks involved in your
credit facilities is How hard was that to put together?
And the fact that they seem to be so many
banks is is that unusual?

Speaker 2 (02:05):
Yeah? I mean our previous think it, Mike would have
had five banks in it, which is which is kind
of normal. It probably is definitely more than we would
have liked, and it was difficult to put it together.
I have to be honest, Okay, a really good job.

Speaker 1 (02:20):
Are you pleading with the banks?

Speaker 2 (02:25):
I wouldn't using both knees, but there certainly is a
fir degree of encouragement required, that's for sure.

Speaker 1 (02:31):
I can't remember because I don't have it in front
of me now. But there were several Chinese banks involved.
Are the Chinese banks involved? Because Bright's Chinese?

Speaker 2 (02:40):
That would be the kiss for sure?

Speaker 1 (02:41):
Okay?

Speaker 2 (02:42):
So I mean, look, I think a couple of them
are probably involved because they've got reasonably sizeable interests in
New Zealand anyway, Bank Channel for example, But a couple
of the other smaller ones for sure have been have
been encouraged by our friends outright.

Speaker 1 (02:56):
Okay, so let's say it all goes well today. Where
does that leave you?

Speaker 2 (03:02):
Yeah? It basically means that really we could put the
deliveraging behind us. We focus on getting our farmers back
in the house again and basically delivering you know, an
outsilling business which which sin they can can be.

Speaker 1 (03:18):
Does the I mean you will have seen the result
this morning at the auction. The general tail winds of
the dairy market at the moment, Does that help in
a measurable sort of way in people's attitudes towards your
company and the farmers who supply Well.

Speaker 2 (03:31):
I'm genuinely not sure it does. At this stage. It's
still relatively early in the season and and while there
is positive positivity, you know, there's still a relatively small
amount of the year has been treated as such. But
it doesn't do any harmony, that's for sure.

Speaker 1 (03:44):
Okay. I'm sure I asked you this last time because
I've been endlessly fascinated by this whole story. How does
this feel in the being in the middle of it.

Speaker 2 (03:52):
Uh, it's it's there's there's a lot of things going on.
There's quite a few balls in the earth, and but
it's actually quite exciting. Frankie, and I think if you're
not up for it, Frankie, you shouldn't be here.

Speaker 1 (04:04):
Good on him. Well, I wish you well today nine
o'clock as the boat time, as I alluded to George Adams,
who's the Sinley board chair.

Speaker 2 (04:10):
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Speaker 1 (04:14):
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