Glanbia shareholders missing vote meetings

CATCHING up with spring work has kept many farmers away from more than 20 information meetings ahead of the vote in May, where 8,000 shareholders will say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to the purchase of Glanbia’s Irish dairy business for about €343m.

The co-op is the plc’s majority shareholder, and would fund the acquisition by an institutional placing of 102 million of its plc shares, which would reduce the co-op’s holding in Glanbia from 56% to 20%. Because the holding would go below a 51% threshold, under co-op rules, it must be approved by 75% of members at two public meetings, the first on May 10, the second a fortnight later. The deal is structured so both sides would share any uplift in the share price, which has risen from €2.25 to €3.25 in the past year, and recently peaked as high as €3.40.

It is also proposed that half of the 20% Glanbia plc stake, about 28.5m Glanbia shares, be distributed to individual farmers, based on their co-op stake. About 70% of that would go to active farmers, and the rest to 10,000 non-voting co-op shareholders, mostly either retired farmers or relatives.