Jeff Grant: Spokesperson for Alliance shareholders discusses deal with Irish-backed Dawn Meats.

Alliance has reached a $270million deal with Dawn Meats. 

2,600 farmer-shareholders voted 87% in favour of selling 65% of the company arm to the Irish-backed company. 

The new investment is expected to strengthen Alliance’s balance sheet, pay down debt and enable greater capital growth.  

Spokesperson for Alliance shareholders Jeff Grant told Mike Hosking that ‘The company was forced into a position of having to find new equity.’ 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It wasn't even close. In the end, Alliance shareholder said

(00:02):
yes to the two hundred and seventy million dollar down
meets bid eighty seven percent support of the selling of
the sixty five percent of the company. Jeff Grant, spokesperson
for the Alliance shareholders, is with us.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Jeff morning, Good morning, Mike.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
Can't argue with democracy, can you?

Speaker 2 (00:16):
No? And you know the board has to be congratulated
for getting the deal over eighty seven percent quite a
high barrier. But that's the last of the meat corporators
in New Zealand.

Speaker 1 (00:27):
Yeah, I was going to ask about that. Is it
emotional or is it just life?

Speaker 2 (00:32):
It's just life. But you know, the shareholders of the
company have effectively watched the directors lose you know, around
three hundred million dollars over seven years and value for them,
and so their equity went from seventy to thirty eight percent.
The company was forced into a position of having to
find new equity.

Speaker 1 (00:50):
How much of this, for people who haven't followed the story,
how much of this individual set of circumstances is an
Alliance story versus the processing of meat story for an industry?

Speaker 2 (01:00):
Our fair bit of it's on a line story. This
is a this will be a business management school one
oh one paper on how to destroy values without any
doubt at all?

Speaker 1 (01:13):
Is it as bad as they made it? The management
made it out to be. In other words, the banks
aren't going to play ball. It's too much money, We've
got no money, we can't afford it, so we need
to sell. Is it that bad?

Speaker 2 (01:24):
Look? I don't believe the banks would have closed on
the nineteenth of December. He was going to be a
receiver six days before Christmas, four and a half thousand
star the start of the Pete kill. So there was
a bit of theater in it. I think that the group,
that our group was able to what I had indicator
that could raise the capitol. I just think the hour

(01:47):
run was too short, too late.

Speaker 1 (01:49):
Do you like Dawn Meats? If you had to sell
these good people.

Speaker 2 (01:54):
Mike, if you were to look around the world and
say what are the four or five companies that you
want to be associated all meet would definitely be one.

Speaker 1 (02:01):
And are they good people or are they going to
strip the place?

Speaker 2 (02:06):
The Lord only knows the reality is that it will
depend on the stock flow, So how much that I'll
actually be able to get this company was losing stock
not just on the basis of market share, but also
just because of the way they were operating the business.
And so I think it'll be a bit of a

(02:26):
test to see. We'll know in about twelve months what
their intentions are.

Speaker 1 (02:30):
Well, get you back on then, Jeff, appreciate your insight.
Jeff Grant, who's the spokesperson for the Alliance shareholders. For
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