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Bulking up: grain giants in $865m merger
4 May 2004
The boards of ABB Grain and AusBulk have agreed on terms for a merger which will create a wheat, malt and barley trader with a market capitalisation of $865 million. It's believed that the terms were agreed on Friday, with ABB Grain shareholders to emerge with 35 per cent of the combined group.
Under the merger terms, ABB's MD Michael Iwaniw will take the top job. His Ausbulk counterpart John Murray is expected to remain as chief operating officer. Although there are still issues to be resolved over the merger, mainly related to tax, it seems none is a deal-breaker. The deal is expected to be announced this week.
The ABB-AusBulk deal could be a precursor to other mergers between trading boards, analysts say.
Australian Financial Review, 4/5/04.
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