BayWa okay with all or most of Turners & Growers

Klaus Lutz says BayWa considered expansion options in South America and South Africa before realising New Zealand made a better fit. Photo / Dean Purcell

German international trading and services company BayWa is prepared to be a majority shareholder in an NZX-listed Turners & Growers if its takeover bid for the horticulture firm is not fully successful, says its chief executive, Klaus Lutz.

BayWa Aktiengesellschaft's proposed takeover bid for Turners & Growers is at $1.85 a share - valuing the company at $216.5 million - with Guinness Peat Group having entered into a pre-bid agreement to sell its 63.5 per cent stake.

The Munich company's offer is for all shares in Turners & Growers, conditional on getting more than half the voting rights.

"But we are prepared that Turners & Growers will stay as a stock-listed company here at New Zealand stock exchange and everybody is more than welcome who is not willing to sell the shares right now," Lutz said.

"We are here in a very respectful manner, we would like to listen, to learn, also maybe we can bring something to the party."

Shares in Turners & Growers, which has operations including growing apples, tomatoes and citrus, closed steady at $1.84 yesterday, having closed at $1.69 on the day the takeover offer was announced.

Lutz said the offer price was fair, there was no plan to increase the price and he was optimistic of getting regulatory approval.

BayWa had revenue of €7 billion ($12.5 billion) for the nine months ended September, with core segments of agriculture, building materials and energy.

The company's fruit business started about eight to 10 years ago and was a success, but small, Lutz said.

"And the question for us was how do we proceed with that because the customers, especially the retailers in Germany, were asking and are demanding for more supply all over the year," he said.

"We need either to expand the business or to get rid of it, and we made the decision strategically, we want to become a much more international company."

The company had investigated areas for expansion, including Latin America and South Africa.

"But we are not willing to invest the money in these areas because it's politically, legally and economically not secure enough," Lutz said.

New Zealand was a perfect fit, with similarities to Europe including the legal system.

The company's planning was long-term.

"I think already whether an investment today is already, or has the chance to be, a success for the successor of my successor," Lutz said. "So we are thinking over decades."

Turners & Growers merged with pipfruit exporter ENZA in 2003 and has 45 companies worldwide in the group, including growing, packing and transport operations, and gross turnover of $847.2 million for the year ended December 31.

Fresh fruit consumption in Europe was in stagnation and declining a little in Germany because of a shrinking population, Lutz said.

"If you want to be a part of this fruit business it's really a global international business and the future market is Asia and we believe that Turners & Growers is already in a very good position to expand the business in Asia via different participations and subsidiaries," he said.

"If this assumption's right, that Asia is one of the future markets, Turners & Growers fits perfectly to our internationalisation strategy for BayWa as a whole group."

The head of Goldman Sachs in Germany had asked Lutz if he was interested in Turners & Growers and had also put the company together with Guinness Peat Group.

Co-operative banks, which owned about 60 per cent of BayWa, had been a winner out of the global financial crisis which meant the company was very strong financially.

"Of course it [economic uncertainty] can effect us too," Lutz said.

"On the other hand agriculture, energy, building material are three fundamental segments of our human life."