Fay's Crafar bid behind Chinese offer
A new offer to buy the Crafar group of farms will be considered but it is less than an offer the receivers have already accepted.
A new offer to buy the Crafar group of farms will be considered but it is less than an offer the receivers have already accepted.
Receiver Brendon Gibson, of KordaMentha, said the latest offer, headed by NBR Rich Lister Michael Fay, was being looked at but an earlier bid for $200 million, by Chinese company Shanghai Pengxin, was accepted and is just waiting on sign-off by the Overseas Investment Office.
Fay's group, which includes local iwi and central North Island farm owners has offered $171.5 million for the 16 farms.
An earlier offer by Hong Kong's Natural Dairy was ruled out by the OIO after it failed a "good character" test.
Mr Fay's bid is supported by Federated Farmers.
Fed's dairy section vice president Robin Barkla, said it was the best option to keep the farms in New Zealand hands.
"As a Kiwi, would I like these farms to remain in Kiwi ownership? You bet I would," Mr Barkla, who farms in the Bay of Plenty, said.
"As our immediate past national dairy chair said earlier in the year, ‘one day, someone's going to make a mini series out of this'. The dealings around these farms you couldn't have dreamt up."
However, Mr Barkla warned that due process needed to be followed on the Shanghai offer.
"While my heart says one thing my head says that because there's a live OIO application, we need to let it go through all the necessary hoops.
"The OIO process must be clean for if there's any hint of favouritism or bias, then we risk becoming a south seas Venezuela. Anything like that would spook international investors and dangerously drive up interest rates."
Mr Gibson said there were no other offers on the table for the farms.
Colin Williscroft
Wed, 21 Sep 2011
Wed, 21 Sep 2011
© All content copyright NBR. Do not reproduce in any form without permission, even if you have a paid subscription.
Fay's Crafar bid behind Chinese offer
16994