The chairman of Australian dairy company TasFoods, Rob Woolley said he felt “commercially misled” over the decision to overturn its offer to buy Van Dieman’s Land Company.
TasFoods, formerly OnCard International, has launched legal action over its failed bid to takeover Tasmanian dairy giant VDL. It believed it had struck a deal to buy the operation.
TasFoods has been granted a interim injunction, in the Supreme Court of Victoria, to restrain the sale to a foreign buyer. Chairman Rob Woolley said the company’s argument was with the New Zealanders -VDL’s parents the New Plymouth District Council, Taranaki Investment Management Limited (TIML) and Tasmanian Land Company (TLC).
“Our argument is with the New Zealanders, completely. We are feeling commercially misled - I have been around a long while, I know what’s a deal and what’s a fair deal,” Mr Woolley said.
New Plymouth “took advantage of TasFoods position” and was not honest. “We had everything lined up and we had satisfied everything.” And TasFoods director Hugh Robertson said he believed the company was conned.
"We got dudded. We entered into a contract and were very transparent with the New Zealanders in the whole process. They had final sign off on every announcement we made to the ASX," Mr Robertson said.
Melbourne investment banker David Williams, of Kidder Williams, said TIML had been trying to sell VDL for at least five years. “I am not sure it is even a higher bid; if you look at the wording, they are very careful – it is a ‘superior commercial proposal’,” Mr Williams said.
The identity of the buyer is subject to a full confidentiality agreement and will not be disclosed until the deal is finalised. The new agreement is also conditional upon Foreign Investment Review Board approval
In its statement to the Supreme Court, TasFoods lawyers said they understood the purchase price offered by the bidder was less than the value of the consideration accepted by TIML.
“The Company has obtained an interim injunction from the Supreme Court of Victoria restraining TLC, VDL and others from taking any steps to terminate the sale agreement, or to sell the VDL assets.”
This year was the seventh consecutive year of record production for VDL and over that time production on the farms has increased by 150 per cent, from a little more than 3 million kilograms of milksolids (MS) a year, to 7.66m kg MS in 2015.
Last year VDL milked 17,890 cows over an area of 7062 hectares, producing a total of 7.66m kg MS, up 14 per cent on 2014.
