Freesia interests seen in closures

Press, 8 March 1988, Page 24

Freesia interests seen in closures

Freesia Investments must be seen as a big shareholder in Waitaki International and Fortex Group, when calling for South island meat works closures, said the chief executive of Alliance •Freezing Company (Southland), Mr Sandy Murdoch. Mr Murdoch was replying to reports that the Meat Board was planning to influence meat works closures in the South Island through its investment arm, Freesia Investments.

Freesia could not remain detached from its

Workers vote Shareholders of Britain's biggest worker-owned com- i pany,, National Freight Con- I sortiums (NFCF, have voted ! to seek a stock market quotation. Chairman. Sir Peter i Thompson, said he hoped the | road haulage firm would re- ; main • essentially worker- ' owned. The company was I privatised six years ago in an i unusual workforce buy-out. j There I are now more than ; 35,000 shareholders, most of; them either NFC workers or pensioners. ' I

vested interests in these companies any more than the Meat Board could claim to be at “arm’s length” from Freesia, he said in a statement. Late in December it was announced that Freesia would buy 19.9 per cent of Goodman Fielder Wattie’s stake in Waitaki International, the Christchurch-based meat group. GFW and Freesia would then form a joint venture holding company for their interests in Waitaki.

There was no evidence that closing meat works in

Barclays cut Barclays. Britain’s second biggest bank, said on Wednesday its 1987 profits fell by more than 60 per cent as a result of funds it set aside to cover potential bad Third World debts. Barclays pre-tax profit was SNZB92 million against; 5NZ2.39 billion the previous year, the bank said. A SNZI.9 billion fund to cover potential bad debts ate into what would have been more than 5NZ2.66 billion pre-tax profits, it added.

the South Island was the solution to the meat industry’s problems. In the North Island, neither the farmers nori the meat companies involved (in works’ clo-i sures) had achieved ai reward for the pain. The farmers were receiving! the lowest returns of any in the country, and the' companies had not shown improved profitability, Mr Murdoch said. If Waitaki and Freesia agreed on a closure strategy and Dunedin’s Burnside works was seen as a casualty, then the two companies should go ahead. The Auckland Farmers’ Freezing Co-operative (AFFCo) puts its own funding in place to close its facilities, and did not rely on other meat processors for help, Mr Murdoch said.

Mr Murdoch suggested that Freesia’s call for a closure strategy reflected that company’s concern about its investments in “under-performing works.”