The Country
  • The Country home
  • Latest news
  • Audio & podcasts
  • Opinion
  • Dairy farming
  • Sheep & beef farming
  • Rural business
  • Rural technology
  • Rural life
  • Listen on iHeart radio

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • Coast & Country News
  • Opinion
  • Dairy farming
  • Sheep & beef farming
  • Horticulture
  • Animal health
  • Rural business
  • Rural technology
  • Rural life

Media

  • Podcasts
  • Video

Weather

  • Kaitaia
  • Whāngarei
  • Dargaville
  • Auckland
  • Thames
  • Tauranga
  • Hamilton
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Tokoroa
  • Te Kuiti
  • Taumurunui
  • Taupō
  • Gisborne
  • New Plymouth
  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Dannevirke
  • Whanganui
  • Palmerston North
  • Levin
  • Paraparaumu
  • Masterton
  • Wellington
  • Motueka
  • Nelson
  • Blenheim
  • Westport
  • Reefton
  • Kaikōura
  • Greymouth
  • Hokitika
  • Christchurch
  • Ashburton
  • Timaru
  • Wānaka
  • Oamaru
  • Queenstown
  • Dunedin
  • Gore
  • Invercargill

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / The Country

NZSA takes aim at institutions after shareholder vote for PGW seeds sale

Jamie Gray
By Jamie Gray
Business Reporter·NZ Herald·
30 Oct, 2018 04:29 AM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Shareholders in rural services group PGG Wrightson have voted to sell its seeds assets. Photo/Hawke's Bay Today.

Shareholders in rural services group PGG Wrightson have voted to sell its seeds assets. Photo/Hawke's Bay Today.

The New Zealand Shareholders Association has taken a swipe at the apathy of financial institutions after a special meeting of PGG Wrightson voted to sell the jewel in its crown - its seeds business - to Denmark's DLF for $434 million.

The rural services company, in issuing results from today's annual meeting and special meeting in Christchurch, said the motion to divest gained 96.92 per cent support, but the but the votes - for and against - came to just 64 per cent of PGW's issued capital.

The motion required 75 per cent approval to get through.

The association opposed the sale.

"It's just so disappointing when shares are not voted, and it's the institutions who have not voted," he said. "They really are doing their clients a disservice," he said.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

On the eve of the meeting, PGW Wrightson's controversial chairman Guanglin (Alan) Lai announced that he was stepping down, effective from today.

Lai is executive chairman of Agria, which owns just over half of PGG Wrightson.

Midgely also shareholders could have done with more notice of Lai's in advance of the meeting.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"With Lai no longer chairman you would have to wonder if the position of Agria might change," he said.

The association said short-term gain for investors would be offset by the remaining business being half the size, and with inferior to the highly regarded seeds unit.

The sale, while still subject to a number of conditions, is worth $292m to shareholders if it goes ahead.

Deputy chair Trevor Burt told shareholders the transaction delivered compelling value to the company and allowed for a continuing relationship with DLF.

He said the company is still reviewing the remaining businesses and still has brokers First NZ Capital on retainer to "explore options for PGW's business, growth opportunities, capital and balance sheet requirements and potentially shareholding structure."

PGG Wrightson's cornerstone shareholder Agria Corp owns 50.2 percent of the rural services firm.

That stake became problematic when the Overseas Investment Office said it was reviewing the company's "good character" status due to an ongoing probe by the US Securities and Exchange Commission over the accuracy of disclosures and accusations of share price manipulation.

Agria recognised a provision of US$3.8 million as at June 30 for what it estimates it will have to pay the SEC to settle the probe, including legal costs.

In a filing to the SEC earlier this month, Agria said it was co-operating with the US regulator and nearing a potential settlement over claims.

Lai, in a statement to the NZX, said: "I will always have great fondness for New Zealand and for PGW.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"The work that Agria has been able to do to benefit PGW and New Zealand is not yet finished, but I think that my time in leading PGW as chair must come to an end as I need to focus on the next phase in my career and spend more time with my family," he said.

In the interim, existing director Joo Hai Lee has been appointed as chair, with Trevor Burt continuing as deputy chair.

Burt said a review of the board's composition and governance would be undertaken and the market would be updated on outcomes "in due course".

The association said the mostly cash offer from DLF Seeds was attractive at face value, with a $292m capital return attached.

Agria Corp took control of Wrightson in 2011, having taken a cornerstone shareholding in 2009 to recapitalise the rural services firm in the aborted merger with Silver Fern Farms.

An independent valuation of the DLF transaction by KordaMentha found the offer to be fair to minority shareholders.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

As well as the risk the transaction could leave Wrightson "a shadow of its former self", Midgley said there may also be concern as to whether the sale would be in the broader strategic interest of New Zealand.

Similar arguments were mounted when Agria mounted its partial takeover in 2011, however no local investors were willing to match that price.

PGG Wrightson shares last traded at 57c, down one cent from Monday's close.

- with BusinessDesk

Save

    Share this article

Latest from The Country

The Country

Giddy Up: Best places to experience cowboy culture

The Country

Vege tips: Getting decorative with gourds and coloured corn

OpinionGlenn Dwight

Glenn Dwight: Lessons from NZ's carless days


Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from The Country

Giddy Up: Best places to experience cowboy culture
The Country

Giddy Up: Best places to experience cowboy culture

From Argentina’s gauchos to Italy’s butteri and America’s rodeo wranglers.

19 Jul 07:00 PM
Vege tips: Getting decorative with gourds and coloured corn
The Country

Vege tips: Getting decorative with gourds and coloured corn

19 Jul 05:00 PM
Glenn Dwight: Lessons from NZ's carless days
Glenn Dwight
OpinionGlenn Dwight

Glenn Dwight: Lessons from NZ's carless days

19 Jul 05:00 PM


Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

06 Jul 09:47 PM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP