But Alliance chairman Mark Wynne has reiterated the alternative plan put forward by a group of Southland-based shareholders to recapitalise the company and keep it wholly in farmer ownership still had two fundamental principles the board does not agree with.
On Monday, a special shareholders meeting is being held in Invercargill, where shareholders will vote on the proposed Dawn Meats deal.
In September, a group of Southland-based shareholders wrote to fellow shareholders proposing an alternative plan to recapitalise.
That plan involved capital contributions from shareholders, asset rationalisation and debt repayments via profits and offsetting $191 million of tax losses against future profits.
On Thursday, the group — now called Farmers Own Alliance — issued a media release saying the sale was “not a Dawn deal”.
They had secured “credible alternatives” to prevent it, and they were urging fellow shareholders to vote no to the deal and called on Alliance’s board to hear their alternatives “before it’s too late”.
In the statement, former Beef + Lamb New Zealand chairman Andrew Morrison, who is part of the farmer group, said shareholders had repeatedly expressed concern to the Alliance board they were not given the same opportunities, or access to the same information as Dawn Meats, to explore alternatives that could retain full local ownership.
Yesterday, former Meat Board chairman and Southland farmer and agribusiness leader Jeff Grant, who is supporting the group, said the finer details of how the group’s plan would play out — including which plants would potentially be affected — were not outlined as they did not have all the information.
Asked whether their bid to influence the vote was too late, Mr Grant said it was “never too late” as he recalled SBS Bank stopping Westpac taking it over, which came down to a final meeting of shareholders in the Civic Theatre in Invercargill who voted it out.
The group had left their run late as there were some assumptions offers to inject capital would mean majority control for the co-operative, he said.
When the Dawn Meats offer was announced, the “door was closed” and shareholders did not have the opportunity to put forward alternatives, he said.
The group of farmers scrambled to look at alternatives and came up with a proposal quite quickly, which they were presenting to Mr Wynne yesterday.
Had Dawn Meats proposed to buy 50% of the co-operative, then he believed that would have been accepted by shareholders but 65% was effectively control and farmers walked away from 65% of profit, Mr Grant said.
Asked whether he believed farmers would be willing to inject capital into the co-operative, he felt they would if it was done in a way that they, along with banks and a new board, felt confident about the future of the company.
Mr Grant said farmers needed to ask why they would sell a critical asset at a time when red meat prices had never been better and global demand was “exploding”. On the back of significant restructuring, Alliance had achieved a massive turnaround and return to profitability.
Yesterday, Mr Wynne, who was due to meet the group, said the group had come out again “fairly hard” on what was virtually a revamp of its original letter to shareholders.
The group assumed the banks would “magically” give an extension on debt repayment, which was due on December 19, and that farmers would be willing to put in capital over the next three years and Alliance would have no loss of market share. Mr Wynne reiterated the company’s stance the proposal was not a credible alternative.
“There have been rumours circulating there is some kind of debt swap being sought. It’s kind of a little bit too late really. We are well into voting [with] only three days to go.”
While he did not know which way the voting was going, by about mid-morning yesterday, 2090 shareholders out of 4300 had voted. In terms of shares themselves, there were 106 million shares on issue and 76 million shares had voted.
If there was another flurry before the shareholder meeting, that could get it up to a good voting number, somewhere north of 80 million and, whatever the outcome was, it would be a clear mandate from shareholders, Mr Wynne said.
During a recent series of roadshow meetings throughout the country to discuss the proposal, most of the questions kept coming back to the 65%-35% split and Alliance having a fewer number of directors.
Farmers wanted to know what was going to stop Alliance “being screwed”, which was a valid question, Mr Wynne said.
Built into the joint venture was about 20 board reserve matters which were “very comfortably” agreed to both Dawn Meats and Alliance.
Those were issues where both parties had to agree and that was very powerful, he said. They included things such as budget and strategy, transfer pricing, major investments and major divestments.
From an equity point of view, it was 65:35 but from a decision-making point of view on key topics, it was effectively 50:50, he said.
Meanwhile strong global demand resulted in New Zealand red meat exports reaching $717m during August, a 22% increase year on year, according to analysis by the Meat Industry Association.
The United States was the largest overall market by value for the month, up 9% on August 2025 at $203m.
Exports to China continued to recover, up 39% by value at $150m, and the UK increased 109%, to $48m.
MIA chief executive Sirma Karapeeva said there was strong global demand and a relatively tight global supply of red meat.
