The co-operative has sold a 65% stake to Dawn Meats for $270 million with farmer-shareholders retaining the remaining shareholding in the business.
In a statement yesterday, Alliance chief executive Willie Wiese said the completion of the transaction was an essential milestone.
"We can move from planning to implementation with a partner that brings scale, global reach and expertise that clearly creates a competitive advantage.
"This marks the start of an exciting new chapter for Alliance, one that is centred on value creation for our farmer-shareholders," he said.
About $188m of the investment proceeds would now be applied to reduce Alliance’s short-term working capital facility and $20m would be invested in the company’s strategic capital programme to lift performance.
Farmer-shareholders would benefit from a distribution of up to $20m in the current financial year (FY25/26) and up to $20m in the next financial year (FY26/27).
In FY25/26, 45% would be paid as a dividend and 55% as a supply-based rebate. In FY26/27, 75% would be paid as a rebate and 25% retained as earnings.
Up to $26m would be distributed as a special dividend from the joint venture to the new Alliance Investment Co-operative following a stronger than forecast year-end result for Alliance.
Last month, Alliance announced a $93m turnaround in underlying company profitability, recording a net profit before tax of $24.6m on revenue of $2.1billion for the year ending September 30, compared with a net loss of $120.8m on revenue of $1.8b the previous year.
The directors of the Alliance Group board are Thomas Moran (independent chairman), Niall Browne, Sean Breen, Mark Wynne and Jared Collie.
Mr Wynne and Mr Collie are the directors of the New Alliance Investment Co-operative along with Matt Iremonger and Ross Bowmar.
— Allied Media
