Alliance says merger with Silver Fern would risk creating 'beached whale' as rival tackles over-capacity

Mon, 28 Sep 2015

By Jonathan Underhill Sept. 28 (BusinessDesk) - Alliance Group chairman Murray Taggart says any merger with Silver Fern Farms risks creating a "big beached whale" of the New Zealand meat industry because its rival needs the capital offered by China's Bright Food just to rationalise plant capacity and reduce its debt burden. Bright Foods' Shanghai Maling Aquarius unit has offered to invest $261 million cash in Silver Fern Farms (SFF) to become a 50-50 partner with the Dunedin-based meat company in a deal that would leave the business debt...

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