{"id":82794,"date":"2025-10-16T19:13:04","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T19:13:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/82794\/"},"modified":"2025-10-16T19:13:04","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T19:13:04","slug":"pgg-wrightsons-board-shake-up-raises-questions-over-agria-and-elders-motives-jarden-downgrades-a2-milk-stock-takes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/82794\/","title":{"rendered":"PGG Wrightson\u2019s board shake-up raises questions over Agria and Elders\u2019 motives, Jarden downgrades a2 Milk – Stock Takes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cJohn brings extensive experience in the agriculture sector and a deep understanding of PGW, having previously served as a director and Audit Committee member from October 2013 to April 2019,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

Following the annual meeting the board formally wrote to Agria and Elders seeking clarification on the rationale and strategic intent behind the directorship changes effected at the meeting.<\/p>\n

In response, Lai, on behalf of Agria, said: \u201cWe view the recent developments as an opportunity to refresh the board, with a focus on driving improvement and enhancing shareholder value.<\/p>\n

\u201cAgria remains committed to its long-term investment in PGW and will continue to support the company, its board, and management in our efforts to increase the value of our investment,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Nichol added the board remained committed to maintaining transparency and strong governance practices.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will continue to engage constructively with all shareholders and stakeholders to ensure confidence in the company\u2019s governance and strategic direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

PGW had been riding the crest of a wave thanks to a buoyant agricultural sector.<\/p>\n

On the eve of the meeting, the company issued an upbeat earnings forecast for 2026.<\/p>\n

While Agria has a bit of history when it comes to PGW\u2019s governance, it\u2019s unclear as to why Elders decided to join the fray.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe now-former chair of PGG Wrightson Garry Moore with chief executive Stephen Guerin.<\/p>\n

Liu \u2013 one of the independent directors proposed by Agria in the aborted board proposals of early 2024 \u2013 was appointed to the board in July this year.<\/p>\n

The New Zealand Shareholders Association recently named PGW its board of the year at its annual Beacon Awards.<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately, I think it\u2019s really hard for us to speculate in terms of saying what motivations are there,\u201d association chief executive Oliver Mander told the Herald.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d have to talk to Elders to work out exactly what the thinking is and what the future plan is.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to say it\u2019s not connected to what went on in early 2024, late 2023, where Agria made a bid to remove the independent directors at that time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have done this in a much quieter, yet more effective way.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is unfortunate for minority shareholders and probably for the company itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mander noted PGW had the benefit of some favourable tailwinds.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s doing well, and yet it\u2019s got form in snatching defeat from the jaws of victory when it comes to governance of its major shareholders.\u201d<\/p>\n

Midway through a round of golf, Moore told the Herald the move was completely out of the blue.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll I can say is that it was a massive surprise \u2013 totally unexpected,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the week prior, I was told by the major shareholder that everything was hunky dory and that they were very pleased with where we were at and to not expect any surprises, so make of that what you will.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even more bewildering was the support given by Elders to the board room spill.<\/p>\n

\u201cI tried obviously to contact Elders, but they\u2019re not picking up.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey [Elders] would appear to be complicit in the bid to get rid of the chair and the deputy chair. The rationale? I could only speculate.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs regards the major shareholder [Agria], I think there\u2019s a bit of revenge in there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AlanAlan Lai, who used to chair Wrightson and is also known as Lai Guanglin, is a citizen of Singapore who lives in Hong Kong.<\/p>\n

Moore said the company is in great heart.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe executive is outstanding.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the customer base, we\u2019ve got long-standing, loyal customers and a great team.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything was coming together, hence the announcement the night before about what people could expect and that it was going to be a good year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is very odd behaviour and I\u2019m scratching my head.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Herald sought a response from Elders as to why it voted the way it did but there was no response from the company by deadline time.<\/p>\n

In its market update, PGW is cautiously optimistic about the balance of the year ahead. <\/p>\n

\u201cBased on current market signals and trading patterns, we anticipate delivering a full year forecast above $60 million at an operating earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation for the June 2026 year, up from $56.1m in 2025,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

a2 Milk downgrade<\/p>\n

Investment firm Jarden has downgraded its recommendation for a2 Milk to \u201cunderweight\u201d from \u201cneutral\u201d.<\/p>\n

In August, the infant formula marketer announced plans to become a manufacturer in its own right with the purchase of Yashili New Zealand\u2019s plant at P\u014dkeno.<\/p>\n

The plan involved selling its majority-owned Mataura Valley Milk in Southland to Open Country Dairy for $100m, while picking up Yashili\u2019s plant for $282m.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe downgrade our rating to underweight, based on our fundamental assessment that a2 Milk\u2019s more definable future growth prospects \u2013 including supply chain benefits \u2013 are now well-priced in at current levels,\u201d Jarden said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMoreover, any potential upside delivery on these key elements carries an unknown quantification of future execution risk, which is difficult to assess upfront, notwithstanding the current management holds a strong track record and retains plenty of financial resource if required,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

On a price earnings basis, current pricing also looked \u201cstretched\u201d.<\/p>\n

Key risks were China\u2019s macro-economic issues, competition and execution of its own manufacture transition.<\/p>\n

Jarden\u2019s target price is $7.85 compared with a current market price of around $10.57.<\/p>\n

Forbar on Ryman Healthcare<\/p>\n

Forsyth Barr says there are signs the worst may be behind retirement village company Ryman Healthcare after delivering a strong second-quarter sales update.<\/p>\n

Ryman has now upgraded 2026 sales expectations twice in just three months.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter a painful few years, there are clear signs the worst may now be behind us,\u201d the broker said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe current resales cadence should slow the build-up of bought-back stock materially, reducing a key cashflow drag and further de-risking the investment case.\u201d<\/p>\n

On revised estimates, Forsyth Barr expects Ryman to deliver modest positive free cashflow in 2026 for the first time in more than a decade.<\/p>\n

The broker retained its \u201cneutral\u201d recommendation but increased its price target to $3.10 (from $2.65).<\/p>\n

Uvre lists<\/p>\n

ASX-listed Australian explorer Uvre (ticker UVA) has debuted on the NZX as a secondary listing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis dual listing will help increase the appeal of Uvre shares to NZ\u2019s extensive equity investment sector by making its securities easily accessible on their home exchange,\u201d Perth-based Uvre said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat will in turn give Uvre exposure to New Zealand\u2019s large pool of investment capital, including a substantial institutional investment base and an extensive retail investment network.\u201d<\/p>\n

Uvre, with a market cap of A$42m ($47.8m), has gold exploration assets in New Zealand.<\/p>\n

They include brownfields gold projects in both the historical Hauraki Goldfields and the Otago Goldfields.<\/p>\n

Record rain<\/p>\n

July was Mercury\u2019s biggest month for hydro power generation since 1980, the company said in an update for the September quarter.<\/p>\n

Five major weather events heading into the winter period delivered 291mm of rain over the Waikato catchment.<\/p>\n

Mercury also said it had entered into a long-term power purchase agreement with packaging firm Visy to supply 115\/gigawatt hours per annum of electricity over the initial 10-year term, with reduced volumes thereafter in the succeeding decade.<\/p>\n

NZX appoints Lisa Turnbull<\/p>\n

NZX has appointed Lisa Turnbull as its new chief executive of Smart, formerly known as Smartshares.<\/p>\n

Turnbull has been the CEO of the NZX subsidiary, NZX Wealth Technologies, since 2017, successfully leading the investment platform from start-up to a key growth business within the NZX Group, with annual recurring revenue reaching $11.9m at the end of June 2025, NZX said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSmart has a huge opportunity in front of it that is exciting, with the KiwiSaver pool of funds expected to grow to around five times its present size by 2050,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

Listen and subscribe to the Today in Business<\/a> podcast \u2013 the top headlines from the NZ Herald business team summarised and delivered by an artificial intelligence (AI) voice as an easily digestible recap.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cJohn brings extensive experience in the agriculture sector and a deep understanding of PGW, having previously served as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":82795,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[19331,63552,95,4765,2372,6256,138,37432,33092,63558,63556,219,63553,12862,7799,63555,101,2374,19332,60,130,63554,111,139,69,29691,1523,384,63550,17146,11596,6967,63557,662,5976,781,9100,1120,131,165,1961,686,3608,63551],"class_list":["post-82794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-a2","tag-agria","tag-and","tag-annual","tag-board","tag-brown","tag-business","tag-chair","tag-deputy","tag-despatched","tag-downgrades","tag-economy","tag-elders","tag-garry","tag-heads","tag-jarden","tag-left","tag-meeting","tag-milk","tag-moore","tag-more","tag-motives","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-order","tag-over","tag-people","tag-pgg","tag-questions","tag-raises","tag-sarah","tag-scratching","tag-shakeup","tag-short","tag-stock","tag-such","tag-takes","tag-than","tag-their","tag-this","tag-week","tag-were","tag-wrightsons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82794\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}