Heartland New Zealand chief executive Jeff Greenslade has described his company’s buyout of PGG Wrightson’s finance arm for about $100 million as ‘an engine for growth in the rural sector’.

Heartland New Zealand, formed from a merger of Marac, Southern Cross Building Society and Canterbury Building Society, will fund the purchase by raising at least $55 million from share placement and share purchase plans.

It is reported that PGG Wrightson and Pyne Gould Corporation have each agreed to buy $10 million Heartland shares in the placement, at 75 cents each.

The deal boosts Heartland’s asset base to about $2.6 billion.

Wrightson chairman Sir John Anderson said the deal ‘ticked all the right boxes’.

Wrightson will continue to offer financial services to its farming customers through a licensing agreement with Heartland.