KEY POINTS:
The make-up of the board for the proposed merger of payment technology companies Provenco and Cadmus Technology has been announced.
Peter Maire and Thiam Beng Lau will represent Cadmus, while Robert Bryden and Chris Morrison will come from Provenco. Two independent directors have yet to be named.
Provenco
chairman Rick Christie will be an independent chairman of the merged company.
Christie said the merger was progressing as expected and would need 75 per cent approval from both sets of shareholders at meetings expected to be held in January.
"Hopefully shortly after that the Commerce Commission approval will be granted, so everything's on track from that point of view."
Grant Samuel was close to finalising an independent report.
Major shareholders were supportive of the merger, Christie said.
"The irony of it is that the shareholders have been telling us we should do this for years and we've been fiercely independent in our own way and we haven't been responding to that," he said.
"Having done the numbers now it is a very compelling merger and one that I certainly would expect shareholders to approve."
There was a lot of incentive on both boards to get the merger done, he added.
"You could argue on the one hand that if we don't get this together we will forgo a huge opportunity," he said. "If we don't do it I think we'll both continue to struggle a bit."
Provenco and Cadmus posted revenue last year of $170.9 million and $25.4 million respectively but net losses of $5.2 million and $4.5 million.
New Zealand technology companies struggled with competition from large multinationals with big balance sheets, Christie said.
"That often don't bring cutting edge technology but they do bring a lot of international credibility and building critical mass in this way is one way we can overcome that."
The merged business would have a greater presence in Asia Pacific and the scale needed for international growth, he said.
"We remain steadfast in our commitment to build a significant New Zealand-based technology company from the platform created in the merger of these two businesses."
The board of the proposed merged company had talked about issues which did not infringe on competitive matters, he said.
The name of the proposed merged entity was yet to be decided but it would remain listed on the NZX, with one share exchanged for each Provenco share and one for every 4.6 shares in Cadmus.
Provenco's shares closed 54c yesterday, while Cadmus closed at 14c.
