Wrightson shareholders sign off on finance unit sale

Wrightson shareholders sign off on finance unit sale

June 28 (BusinessDesk) – Shareholders in rural services firm PGG Wrightson Ltd. have approved the sale of its finance unit to Heartland New Zealand Ltd.

Of those Wrightson shareholders who voted, at 99.5% were in favour of the sale, though there were 72.6 million abstentions representing about 13% of the firm’s stock.

The approval paves the way for Heartland to spend $100 million and take on $352 million of debt in listed bonds and debentures for the loan book valued at between $400 million and $430 million.

Wrightson will carve out $96.5 million of non-performing loans into a special purpose unit to refinance or realise those assets in the short- to medium-term. It will also provide a $30 million guarantee on certain assets sold to Heartland.

The rural services firm will help fund the sale through a $10 million private placement as part of a $55 million capital raising. Pyne Gould Corp. will also subscribe to shares in a separate placement.

Wrightson shareholders also signed off on Ngai Tahu Capital Ltd. taking a 7.24% stake in Agria Asia Investments Ltd., a company related to Wrightson’s controlling parent.

Shares in Wrightson dropped 2% to 48 cents in trading today, and have declined almost 11% this year.

(BusinessDesk)

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