PGW - PGG Wrightson

[Queenstfarmer]

Something is brewing....

[Snoopy]

Something is brewing....

Perhaps this?

"The notice of meeting records that Sir Selwyn Cushing, Bill Thomas and Tao Xie (XT) will retire from the board at the meeting. Guanglin Lai (Alan) will also retire by rotation and will stand for re-election."

XT is in theory the chief executive officer of Agria. So I am very surprised to hear he is standing down. As for the other two, I am a little less surprised the use by sticker has come up.

SNOOPY

[Snoopy]

Something is brewing....

Or maybe this?

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PGG Wrightson gets government backing in $14.6M seeds research
Thursday 4th October 2012


PGG Wrightson, the New Zealand rural services group controlled by China's Agria, has won government backing for a $14.6 million research programme that aims to improve seed quality and plant species.

The government will invest $7.15 million over six years through its Primary Growth Partnership fund in a Wrightson-led initiative to lift animal productivity and reducing environmental impacts, the Ministry for Primary Industries said in a statement. The balance will be picked up by Wrightson and its research partners.

The programme seeks to establish faster and more reliable pasture, increase pasture productivity and persistence, cut greenhouse gas emissions, improve animal health and lower susceptibility to summer droughts.

"Co-funding of these projects by government and industry is what PGP is all about," Primary Industries Minister David Carter said in a statement. "Every New Zealander stands to gain from innovative investment in the primary sector because our food, fishing, fibre and forestry industries are pivotal to the success of the economy."

Wrightson's seeds business was widely seen as the attraction for China's Agria Corp taking a controlling 50.01 percent stake in the company in a $144 million deal. Its agri-tech unit, which has been building its seeds business, increased revenue 3.6 percent to $435 million, though earnings fell 21 percent to $30.1 million in the latest financial year.

Derek Woodfield, PGG Wrightson Seeds general manager of research and development, said the funding will let the company build a suite of new technology to keep New Zealand farmers internationally competitive.

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SNOOPY

[Balance]

Me thinkth none of the above - just Dodgie Georgie's firesle stock being absorbed by the short term traders to the longer term players.

Comes 2013, New Hope will make its move.

[Snoopy]

"The notice of meeting records that Sir Selwyn Cushing, Bill Thomas and Tao Xie (XT) will retire from the board at the meeting. Guanglin Lai (Alan) will also retire by rotation and will stand for re-election."

XT is in theory the chief executive officer of Agria. So I am very surprised to hear he is standing down. As for the other two, I am a little less surprised the use by sticker has come up.

In another directorial twist, the chief executive of Ngai Tahu Greg Campbell has quietly dropped off the PGW board after only a year on it. This I thought odd until I found Campbell had resigned as CE of Ngai Tahu. The new CE of Ngai Tahu is none other than Mike Sang. If that name isn't familiar to you it should be.

Sang was the former CFO of Wrightson under Craig Norgate. Reading between the lines he was forced to resign because he allowed the Silver Fern farm joint venture to go unconditional despite the small matter of the bank funding not being in place to complete the merger. This was of course a disaster for PGW and one of the factors behind the corporate bailout that brought Agria to the table. Imagine Sang back at PGG Wrightson but now on the board! What would I give to be a fly on the wall at Sang's first PGW board meeting!

SNOOPY

[Balance]

In another directorial twist, the chief executive of Ngai Tahu Greg Campbell has quietly dropped off the PGW board after only a year on it. This I thought odd until I found Campbell had resigned as CE of Ngai Tahu. The new CE of Ngai Tahu is none other than Mike Sang. If that name isn't familiar to you it should be.

Sang was the former CFO of Wrightson under Craig Norgate. Reading between the lines he was forced to resign because he allowed the Silver Fern farm joint venture to go unconditional despite the small matter of the bank funding not being in place to complete the merger. This was of course a disaster for PGW and one of the factors behind the corportae bailout that brought Agria to the table. Imagine Sang back at PGG Wrightson but now on the board! What would I give to be a fly on the wall at Sang's first PGW board meeting!

SNOOPY

Well spotted, Snoopy!

What does it really mean, however?

[percy]

Well spotted, Snoopy!

What does it really mean, however?

Means Ngai Tahu have a good insight to their investment.

[Snoopy]

Well spotted, Snoopy!

What does it really mean, however?

This is how I read the situation.

Sang has been brought on board because Ngai Tahu want to increase their rural assets beyond the token stake in PGW that they currently hold.

It also means 'New Hope' for Agria for a source of future funding. There may be someone else willing to bail them out who doesn't salute the red flag.

SNOOPY

[Balance]

I think you are right and truely believe the main reason for pgw current 35 cent sp is a overhang of short term profit taking, which by my calculations is just about done and dusted.

I can only think of more positives to your hypothesis that is to say the pgw brand is very strong, well established, now focusing in the right place's and current share price reflects that the stock is out of favour and sold down by impatient investors as well as profit takers.
The share price could also be suffering a hang over(out of favour) from the Allied farmers debacle as this company operates in the same industry.

I liken PGW to skellerup and fpa.
I own the stock and continue add to my holdings.

I can tell you that farming is going to have a great year(maybe not as good as last year).

Huge volumes being crossed in the last 2 weeks - could well be the end of all that stock sold down by PGC in July at 29 cents and then, 32 cents.

Lovely profit for the buyers at 29 cents = 20m shares x 6 cents profit = $1.2m or 20% plus profit in 3 months.

Who says you cannot make money out of Georgie?

[Snoopy]

There are some eerie parallels

- Former management suffering huge amounts of hubris after overseas acquisitions prove very expensive

PGW has been rather modest with their overseas acquisitions IMO. They have bought into a few seed companies in Australia and paid so little for them the buy in prices were not disclosed. Once new seed businesses are acquired, Agritech does not tell us which sales are from the new acquisitions and which are from the existing seed business. Agritech sales were $NZ356.7m in FY2008 and now they are $390.4m five years later in FY2012. The Agritech divisional NPAT story is more telling. $19.9m in FY2008 and $3.7m in FY2012.

One argument might be that however little PGW actually paid for their seed business acquisitions, it was far too much. Because the effects on Agritech profitability have been so devastating.

SNOOPY