Green light for acquisition
The merger of two of the country’s largest animal nutrition companies won’t lessen competition, the Commerce Commission has ruled.
Farmlands joins Landcorp, Silver Fern Farms and Veterinary Enterprises Group Ltd as shareholders in FarmIQ Systems Ltd.
FarmIQ chairman John Quirk welcomed Farmlands as a shareholder and the decision by Landcorp to increase its shareholding.
“The FarmIQ board wanted to achieve a broad shareholding to reflect FarmIQ’s role as the provider of an open, independent platform for farming and agribusiness,” says Quirk.
“The shareholding companies now comprise two farmer-owned co-ops, a national veterinary business and a land-based state-owned enterprise.
“They represent the value chain from farm suppliers, farm consultants and farmers to processors. We remain open to working with other companies that can add value to farmers through data.”
Farmlands chief executive Peter Reidie says the investment will help Farmlands support and service its shareholders.
“This investment will help our shareholders and their businesses, particularly as emerging technology changes how we farm. This is another step towards our goal of being market leaders in agricultural knowledge and expertise.”
Landcorp chief executive Steve Carden says increasing the Landcorp investment is a vote of confidence in the future of FarmIQ Systems Ltd.
“FarmIQ has been instrumental in connecting our day-to-day operations with the rest of our business,” says Carden.
“Farming businesses of all sizes are now adopting FarmIQ as their digital information hub, and we are pleased to see the whole farming ecosystem starting to share their information through the FarmIQ platform.”
FarmIQ chief Darryn Pegram says this is good news for farmers and agribusiness.
“FarmIQ now has all the resources we need to fuel our growth. We will accelerate new software development to meet the needs of our existing sheep and beef customers, and launch our dairy product and partner with companies in the pastoral value chain. The result will be more information at farmers’ fingertips.”
Silver Fern Farms chief executive Dean Hamilton says the new investment is a sure sign of confidence in the future of the FarmIQ software.
“Silver Fern Farms has itself invested over $5m in the last seven years in developing the FarmIQ software and supporting its commercialisation as part of the Primary Growth Partnership with the Government.
