Silver Fern Farms share trading suspended for capital raising

Silver Fern Farms Dargaville processing plant. Photo: John Stone.

Silver Fern Farms said trading in its shares, which trade on the "Unlisted" market platform, has been suspended while it pursues capital raising initiatives.

The company, New Zealand's biggest meat processor and a so called "hybrid" co-operative, said no further comment would be made.

Dunedin-based Silver Fern has said it is considering raising $100 million in fresh capital to repay debt and to pursue growth opportunities.

The company has enlisted investment bank Goldman Sachs to advise on its options. A decision on the co-op's likely course of action is expected this month or in August. The company has 104 million shares on issue, held mostly in Otago, Southland and Canterbury.

Silver Fern and the country's second biggest meat company Alliance, are both co-operatives but differ in their structure.

Silver Fern is seen as a "hybrid", with 6200 ordinary shareholders and 16,000 farmer partners. Invercargill-based Alliance, New Zealand's second biggest meat firm, runs along conventional co-operative lines.

Pressure groups within both co-ops want the parties to reconsider merging in order to gain economies of scale, increase efficiency and to deal with the vexed issue of over-capacity and competition for stock at the farm gate.