Dairy Holdings shareholders buy out remaining investors

Photo / Sarah Ivey

Shareholders of Dairy Holdings Ltd, which owns 58 dairy farms in the South Island, have bought shares owned by the collapsed South Canterbury Finance (SCF) and others.

Chairman Bill Baylis said earlier that transactions were due to settle on Thursday and that Overseas Investment Office approval would not be needed.

Companies Office records on Friday show that SCF has been removed as a shareholder. It previously had a 33.6 per cent stake.

Three UK entities, Pals Plus LLC, NZ Cow Company LLC , and Little Cow Company LLC, have also been removed as shareholders and holdings for existing shareholders Colin Armer and Alan Pye have been amended.

SCF receivers had been trying to sell the Dairy Holdings stake jointly with four other shareholders, creating a 62.5 per cent controlling stake but there has been speculation that the existing shareholders had preemptive rights and that the company, rather than the receiver controlled the sale process.

US shareholders were part of that controlling stake.

A company associated with Humphry Rolleston updated its stake, suggesting he lifted his shareholding.

SCF receivers Kerryn Downey and William Black of McGrath Nicol have already sold a range of SCF assets. The government had to pay $1.7 billion to depositors and debenture holders and wants to get as much of the money back as it can.

The Dairy Holdings farms are mostly in North Otago and Canterbury. The company has associations with a total of 72 farms, when support farms are included.

The dairy farms cover 14,243 hectares and milk 43,992 cows to produce approximately 15.18 million kilograms of milk solids a year.