Today is D-day for Silver Fern Farms shareholders.
By early afternoon, they will know whether Chinese company Shanghai Maling will take a 50% stake in their company.
The result of the all-important vote, determining whether the proposed joint venture goes ahead, will be revealed following a special meeting at Forsyth Barr Stadium in Dunedin.
Voting closed on Wednesday, unless shareholders intended voting at the meeting, which gets under way at 10.30am.
The result is expected to be announced between midday and 1pm, subject to the time taken by the returning officer to verify it.
The $261 million Shanghai Maling plans to invest in Silver Fern Farms is the largest single amount ever invested in New Zealand's red-meat industry. The listed company is a subsidiary of state-owned food giant Bright Food Group.
The deal did not need shareholder approval by law, or through Silver Fern Farms' constitution, but the company wanted buy-in from farmers.
As well as the resolution for the joint venture, shareholders will also vote on another resolution, put forward by a group of shareholders, seeking full analysis of the benefits and risks of a merger with Alliance Group.
Alliance Group chairman Murray Taggart and chief executive David Surveyor have been on the road this week, addressing their own suppliers at a series of roadshow meetings.
Speaking at Five Forks, Mr Taggart said there had been much commentary about the Silver Fern Farms proposal, including that it was going to ''wipe the slate of the industry for everybody else'', including Alliance Group.
Alliance Group did not take that view and believed there were some opportunities from it, including potentially freeing up some markets, he said.
When the Shanghai Maling proposal was announced last month, Alliance Group confirmed it had submitted a bid for Silver Fern Farms before the capital-raising process got under way.
For legal reasons, the company could not comment on any Alliance Group involvement in that process, Mr Taggart said.
Mr Surveyor said Silver Fern Farm shareholders would make their own decisions on the future of their company, and Alliance Group was ''not at all uncomfortable'' if they voted in favour of the joint venture.
Alliance Group had made a conscious decision that it was going to ''get bigger and better''.
It was very clear in its strategy and believed it had a proposition that was robust.
''We've got to row our own boat, we've got to continue our own direction,'' Mr Surveyor said.
A merger of Silver Fern Farms and Alliance Group would give a bigger business, but not necessarily a better business.
The company had not done any budgeting that said, if the Shanghai Maling deal went ahead, which ''seems likely'', that it would pick up ''a whole lot of shareholders''.
He believed that was probably an unlikely scenario. Most farmers, quite sensibly, were likely to wait and see what happened.
No doubt some shareholders, on the fringe, might shift to Alliance Group but the company did not have ''fingers crossed hoping it happens'', he said.
A special meeting of Alliance Group shareholders to also vote on a resolution seeking an analysis of a merger with Silver Fern Farms has been put off until after the result of the joint-venture vote is announced.
Mr Surveyor said the company's constitution was designed for shareholders to ask questions of the company.
West Otago farmer Allan Richardson, a vocal opponent of the Shanghai Maling deal, said the proposal should stand as a warning to all farmer co-operatives about their vulnerability to takeover.
''Which will be the next co-operative to fall to foreign control? The ... deal shows us all co-ops can be bought out at a price,'' he said.
Mr Richardson is working with a group of South Island farmers on an alternative to the Chinese offer, involving a possible issue of new shares in Silver Fern Farms.
Joint venture plan
THE DEAL
• Shanghai Maling will invest $261million to take 50% stake in new company called Silver Fern Farms Ltd; existing co-operative holds remaining 50%.
• Deal needs to be approved by shareholders today and pass Overseas Investment Office and Chinese regulatory approval.
• As part of deal, Silver Fern offering shareholders a sweetener of 30c per share special dividend.
THE OPPOSITION
• Wanaka-based businessman John Rodwell leading group of financiers prepared to underwrite potential issue of new shares in Silver Fern Farms.
Underwriters include Landcorp, Invercargill-based transport business H.
W. Richardson Group and Hastings-based animal by-products manufacturer Lowe Group.
