July 28, 2009
ABB Grain''s Iwaniw to retire Friday, says has regrets
Managing Director of ABB Grain Ltd. Michael Iwaniw will step down Friday (July 24) after four decades with the company, but in a swan song to a grain industry conference Tuesday he indicated some regrets about the future corporate shape of the industry.
ABB Grain is facing a A$1.6 billion (US$1.33 billion) takeover by Canadian-based ViterraInc., which in the absence of a better proposal Iwaniw and ABB''s board support as it creates value for shareholders.
A booklet outlining the proposed scheme of arrangement will be posted to shareholders this week ahead of meetings and a vote in September, Iwaniw said.
Asked by Dow Jones Newswires on the sidelines of the conference whether he regretted not seeing a world-class Australian grain company established, Iwaniw replied, "When you''ve been there 40 years, you have lots of regrets and you would do a lot of things differently."
Indeed, forming such an Australian company "would be ideal...but this transaction with Vittera might very well lead to that end anyway," he said.
Earlier, to the conference, Neil Wandel, chairman of Western Australian-based
Cooperative Bulk Handling Ltd.,(CBH) said he regretted that CBH and ABB didn''t merge into a great, strong Australian grain company.
"That''s a bit tragic for the Australian industry going forward," Wandel said.
Iwaniw said CBH is the best Australian grain company as it is well managed and with good assets, but its cooperative structure meant it couldn''t be merged with ABB, without first privatizing, which CBH shareholders voted against early this decade.
"I wish CBH had got their act together and did these whole series of things, and had they done that we could have...(but) you can''t put a publicly listed company and a cooperative together," he said.
"The Viterra bid''s on the table. It''s being dealt with in a proper manner," he said.
The structure of CBH and ABB assets are similar, with CBH dominating upcountry grain storage and export terminal operations in Western Australia, with ABB holding a similar position in South Australia, the two states that together account for more than two-thirds of Australian wheat and barley exports.
US$1 = AUD1.20 (July 28)
