By NZPA
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Friday 11th October 2002 |
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Dairy Brands, which wants to change direction and become an investment company, said it would hold a shareholders' meeting in Wellington on November 25 to get approval for its plans.
It will also seek approval to enter into a management contract for its ongoing operation.
Dairy Brands shares last closed at 63c.
The company said its principal shareholder, ASC, had indicated it would not take part in the proposed buyback and as a result, there should be sufficient available subscribed capital for the buyback to be tax free.
An independent appraisal would be sent to shareholders.
In August Dairy Brands announced a 24.4 percent fall in annual profit and no dividend, following a record profit based on high milk payouts the year before.
It posted a net after-tax profit of $4.77 million for the year to May 31, compared with a profit of $6.32 million a year ago.
After redistributing $22 million to shareholders through a buy-back last September, Dairy Brands sold the last of its farms this year and liquidated itself.
The company planned to remain a listed company and seek a "suitable investment opportunity" for its $12 million war chest.
Dairy Brands was originally set up in 1995 as a joint venture between then-listed farmer and horticulturist Apple Fields and a Canterbury family ice-cream firm, Killinchy Gold, owned by the Thornton family, of Killinchy, near Leeston.
By 1997, the Killinchy business had operated at a loss for two years, and in 1998 Dairy Brands sold it and wrote down its farm values as part of a $12 million loss in the year ended May 31.
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