McDouall re-elected to Allied Farmers board with 74% of vote

Tuesday 29th November 2011 2 Comments

Andrew McDouall, whose advisory firm helped broker Allied Farmers’ acquisition of the Hanover and United loan books, has been re-appointed to Allied’s board with the support of 73.5 percent of shareholders who cast their votes.

The acquisition of the Hanover and United financial assets proved disastrous for Allied, which was forced to slash the value of the loans, paid for by issuing new Allied shares, from their initial valuation of $394 million.

McDouall is deemed an independent director, according to a statement on the results of today’s annual meeting. In the company’s presentation to shareholders today, assets were given as $55 million, including $15 million of loans and advances, and $16 million of property.

The company has posted four years of losses and suffered the receivership of its Allied Nationwide finance arm, to which it still owes money.

In the company’s 2011 annual report, under director disclosures, it says brokerage McDouall Stuart Group provided arms-length advisory and consultancy work for Allied, including as lead manager and underwriter for a share placement in August last year and a rights issue that wasn’t completed because of the failure of Allied Nationwide.

Separately, the brokerage was paid $650,000 in investment banking fees and a ‘pool’ established by Ecko Capital, which the annual report described as investment bankers acting for Hanover.

“Those fees were paid to McDouall Stuart by Hanover Finance (on instructions from Ecko Capital) and were not paid by Allied Farmers,” the report says. McDouall’s interest was disclosed to the board and a protocol for handling the interest was suggested, according to the annual report.

At the annual meeting, holders of 5.6 million shares voted to re-elect McDouall, 2 million, or 26 percent, were against and holders of 6.3 million shares abstained.

BusinessDesk.co.nz

Comments from our readers

On 30 November 2011 at 9:17 am Richard Brown said:

The fox is back in the chicken house for a 2nd crack at whatever is left.

On 30 November 2011 at 9:43 am Ivan said:

Oh what great news. So now I suppose we all get our money back and everyone lives happily ever after. What a croc of s**t.