Wool Partners Co-operative (WPC) chairman Jeff Grant has answered several critics who said the prospectus was deficient and accused former Telecom chief executive Theresa Gattung, a WPC director, of "using confusion as a marketing tool".
WPC is seeking a commitment from growers to provide it with half the country's strong wool clip, 65 million kg, and subscribe to shares equivalent to $1 for each kg of wool produced, payable over five years.
The first $13 million raised will be used to buy from Wool Partners International (WPI) the exporter Bloch and Behrens, Wools of New Zealand and the supply, marketing and corporate assets and liabilities of WPI and NZ Wool Handlers, and settle a due payment to the Wool Research Organisation of New Zealand (WRONZ).
Other than prospective cashflow, assumed revenue and gross margins and operating expenditure tables, the 72-page prospectus contains little other financial information, but Mr Grant said WPC had done nothing wrong.
A North Island wool processor, farmer and former accountant with wool exporter H. Dawson and Co, Janette Eason-Savage, released a statement on Friday critical of WPC, claiming WPI had made a $5.8 million loss over the past two years, yet this was not mentioned in WPC's prospectus.
Ms Eason-Savage said there was no opening balance sheet for WPC or independent valuation of the price of assets it was buying and WPC was hiding behind capital-raising rules for co-operatives which differed from other companies.
"The promoters don't have to declare whether the co-operative is buying a loss-making business or not.
"Show us the balance sheet and publish the full story so we farmers can understand what we are buying into," she said.
Mr Grant said he was unsure where Ms Eason-Savage got her figures from, but he was more focused on the current capital-raising transaction and reiterated the prospectus met all the legal requirements.
He said there were some in the wool industry determined to keep grower involvement to producing and supplying wool, and to ensure wool users did not interact with producers or become involved in marketing.
