Silver Fern Farms Ends Merger Plan with PGG Wrightson

The much vaunted vertical integration of meat processor Silver Fern Farms and farm services (stock & station agent) firm PGG Wrightson has been brought to an end - at least for now - because of Wrightson' s failure to come up with the financing for the merger.

After Wrightson was unable to come up with the funds on 1 October as liquidity tightened sharply as a result of the global financial crisis, the writing was on the wall for the deal.

PGG Wrightson apparently is still interested in developing a renewed deal with Silver Fern, but that will still need approval of 75% of SFF farm-shareholders.

There is also some speculation that SFF will now seek to revive discussions with rival meat processor Alliance Group to secure a merger.