A group of minority shareholders in New Zealand Farming Systems Uruguay are accusing Olam International of using scare tactics to force them into selling their shares.
The group of New Zealand shareholders, which claims to control more than 10 percent of NZFSU, says they won’t sell up at Olam’s current offer of 70c a share.
Minority shareholder spokesman Rob Poole has been co-ordinating the group along with three other significant shareholders, and says Olam is trying to downplay the company’s short term prospects.
“Their business plan says in their target statement, dividends by 2014 – that’s not that long.
“They’re talking about these long waits for dividends, trying to scare us, well it’s not working with me.
“You’ve just got to look at the numbers – wait ‘til the 14th.
“If they get the numbers, well then it’s worked – if they don’t, then it hasn’t.”
Rob Poole says there is significant interest from other small shareholders looking to join the group, in order to present a united front to the Singaporean company.
“We’re in contact all the time, non-stop, and the list is growing all the time, the last few days it’s been growing by the hour.
“They’re all positive and all pleased they’ve found a group to cling on to because they were all getting bullied around too.”
The share offer expires on Tuesday next week, while NZFSU shares last traded at 70c
