Such a potential cornerstone shareholder could be enough to retain control of Silver Fern Farms in New Zealand ownership, even if sitting alongside the Chinese company in a structure which draws on the useful linkages that firm has in China, yet ensures control does not drift.
The Federation of Maori Authorities has also signed a memorandum of understanding with the country's largest meat producers' co-operative.
Getting such interests together - which would stop short of the major meat sector consolidation that has long been promulgated - could have upside. It would certainly be a far saner option than yesterday's call by politicians for the Government to "bail out" the meat exporting company. Why would the Government invest taxpayer funds into a co-operative when its own farmer shareholders won't or can't?
But it comes down to price.
The reality is that Silver Fern Farms requires a balance sheet restructuring exercise to put it on a firmer footing.
There is an argument that its banking syndicate has been possibly too aggressive and that the ability of farmer shareholders to participate in a rights issue is limited because of banker wariness due to the dairy downturn.
The Chinese firm is understood to have capital of more than $300 million to invest. This makes such a deal attractive to the banking syndicate which has pressured the board to get the capital restructure done.
The brutal truth is New Zealand investors are not great at backing the agribusiness sector.
John Penno's Synlait struggled to get investment capital. Bright Dairy injected $82 million in 2010 for 51 per cent control of what became Synlait Milk. A later float of Synlait Milk was well subscribed with the Chinese company reducing its stake to 39 per cent. But when Penno earlier hawked the prospect around town he was unsuccessful.
The Bright connection assisted Synlait to penetrate not just the Chinese market but elsewhere in Asia.
Shareholder opposition is strong in some quarters and is readily being whipped up at the political level.
But unless board members can be persuaded to remove their support for a proposal that has got momentum and banker backing it will be hard to derail.
The late Lloyd Morrison was the best exponent of that game. Almost single-handedly he rallied members of the Auckland International Airport board to "rethink" their support for the Dubai move and ensured politicians did the same. But ironically, Infratil later failed to book a quick $40 million profit on the sale of its $140 million investment when the Labour Government blocked a subsequent bid by the Canadian Pension Plan.
NZ First's Winston Peters' opposition has already been stated. Labour's Stuart Nash - demonstrating an opportunistic streak - climbed in urging the Overseas Investment Office to take a "hardline" stance.
Nash acknowledged Silver Fern Farms doesn't actually own farms, then tried to conflate the issue by saying that since 2008 the OIO has not stopped any sale of farmland to foreigners. This is an absurdity.
There is already considerable foreign investment in New Zealand agribusiness. Several Chinese companies have meat interests and there is major Japanese investment in Anzco.
China is Silver Fern Farms' largest market. In the year ended September 30, 2014, its exports to China were worth $385.6 million - up from $332.4 million the previous year. There was also major growth in virtually all of the company's prime markets including the United States.
If Silver Fern Farms' balance sheet is successfully restructured, it gets some strong, significant shareholders on board and good market links, it could have a bright future. The question is will it be a Bright one?
