The Irish Agricultural Wholesale Society (IAWS) has officially started on the path to flotation as a new company called One51.
The society made the first move towards its new status as a body corporate yesterday, when its more than 40 co-operative members voted unanimously for the change and the new name.
The society settled on One51 because the name reflects its roots at 151 Thomas Street in Dublin, the building currently occupied by IAWS plc.
Philip Lynch, the society's chief executive, will soon start the process of transferring €230 million in assets from the society to the new company.
Within the next 12 months, possibly as early as March, the company will launch a grey market in its shares and will seek to raise funds from institutions. It is expected to be worth up to €350 million at that stage. A full flotation on the Irish Stock Exchange could follow within three years.
Mr Lynch said yesterday that the firm would probably raise between €50 million and €100 million over the next year and a half.
"We're going into this for the long term," he said. Mr Lynch has committed himself to One51 for at least three years.
In its early days, the firm expects to adopt a highly-acquisitive strategy, with emphasis on waste management and renewable energy. Mr Lynch said there were a number of "good things in play" at the moment, but declined to expand on specific targets.
"Everything out there in that sector is for sale," he said, adding that the firm could comfortably spend "a couple of hundred million" if the right deal came along.
The firm has been linked with a move on waste management company, Oxygen.
Existing assets to be transferred to One51 are dominated by a 26 per cent stake in infrastructure operator, NTR. Mr Lynch said the firm's holding in NTR was not a precursor to a takeover on either side, but was instead a "strategic and long-term" position. He pointed out that the society was sitting on a €30 million paper profit on its €125 million investment, which was completed at the start of this year.
The assets to be transferred also include the Cork-based co-op, SWS, which the society acquired earlier this year. SWS concentrates on finance and renewable energy. Other One51 assets will include bakery Irish Pride, a rendering business in Ballinasloe, a 45 per cent stake in French fertiliser company Cedest Engrais and some property in Cork. The society also has 11 million shares in IAWS plc but it has promised to distribute these to its members in a €125 million-plus payout later this year.
This move will require further approval at another meeting scheduled for the end of July, but this is expected to be easily achievable in light of yesterday's unanimous response. As part of yesterday's meeting, the member co-ops also approved a motion to keep at least €12 million within the society and use this to found a charitable trust.
The trust will focus on self-help initiatives and educational causes at home and abroad, with an emphasis on underprivileged people. Its establishment is designed to reflect the original "self-help" aims of the society and its first chairman, Horace Plunkett.
