Waterford not likely to make final decision at Friday's meeting

A CRUCIAL meeting of the board of Waterford co op will take place in Dungarvan on Friday. The board will consider evaluations of the bid by Avonmore prepared by its advisers NCB Corporate Finance, auditors KPMG and legal advisers McCann Fitzgerald.

However, the co op board is not expected to reach a decision at this meeting on the offer which Avonmore has valued at £281 million when all the components are taken into account.

The 35 member co op board, which owns 68 per cent of publicly quoted company Waterford Foods, has clearly signalled that it will not be rushed into a decision on the bid and will take time to evaluate the detailed offer. At a meeting last Friday the board decided to defer any response to the Avonmore bid until a full evaluation of the proposals had been carried out by its advisers.

While there is no formal timed limit on the Avonmore offer which values Waterford Foods at about £213 million, the next staged involves the co op board making a recommendation to its 5,500 farmer members. The farmers will then have to consider the issue at two special general meetings.

For a merger of the Avonmore and Waterford operations to proceed, 75 per cent of the farmers who vote must approve the proposals. Only farmers who attend the meetings can vote - there is no provision for voting by proxy as happens with public companies.

The Waterford Foods board, which also met last Friday, took a preliminary look at the Avonmore offer. Eleven of the 14 directors of the company are farmers representing Waterford Co op. The only director who is not a company executive or a farmer is Mr Steven O'Connor, a former chiefs executive of Waterford Foods.