Mussel pioneer flexes new takeover muscle

Blenheim businessman Peter Yealands.

Peter Yealands, mussel farm pioneer, car importer, multi-millionaire, and takeover protagonist in the war for Oyster Bay Marlborough Vineyards, was yesterday mulling "a king hit".

It was, it seemed, time to up the stakes in the bidding war for the listed company that owns vineyards in the Wairau Valley in Marlborough, growing grapes for Yealands' rival bidder, Delegat's Wine Estate.

The bids already on the table from Yealands and Delegat's - $3.50 a share - valued the company at $31.5 million.

The genial Yealands was also mulling something else - his first appearance in the much-publicised National Business Review Rich List.

"The useless bastards," he said on the phone from his home at his Seaview Vineyards Estate in Seddon, 24km southeast of Blenheim, suggesting an initial lack of enthusiasm for the listing and the $70 million estimate of his worth.

"I'm disgusted. It's not me. I'm a fairly private person.

"I think it's a bloody nonsense - how would anybody know how much debt I've got? All they do is take a stab."

He finished up: "I would rather not be on it."

In another conversation, the multi-talented Yealands described himself as "a jack of all trades and a master of none - I've never been scared to have a go at anything".

"We're a long time dead, and I don't mind taking things on."

The takeover battle for the Oyster Bay vineyards comes just six years after Yealands got into grapes, developing the first of the six vineyards he owns at Seddon and Blenheim.

His other ventures include deer farming, forestry, importing machinery and cars, and a residential development in Pelorus Sound planned to have more than 200 sections, a marina and a golf course.

That list is far from definitive.

"Crikey dick. I own half-shares in a coalmine."

Asked to rewind his working life to the start, Yealands said he left school at 14 to help in his father's grocery shop - bagging dates, cracking walnuts, slicing bacon - and then, at about 16, went shearing and fencing with a friend.

He bought agricultural machinery and went contracting, merchandised hay and coal, worked on civil construction projects and - with his father and brothers - set up a mussel farming business.

"We got the first mussel marine farming licence ever issued in New Zealand.

"We struggled through and ultimately it became very profitable and rewarding. I was in there for 15 to 20 years."

Yealands set up another business making mussel floats.

But a takeover bid for a listed company is a first in his varied business life.

"I'm enjoying it. I love it," he told the Business Herald.

"It gets the adrenalin going. There's a lot of hype in it. I'm certainly not getting fatigued by it. It's a bit of an eye-opener."

The takeover stoush has included complaints to the Takeovers Panel and the stock exchange and Yealands' dispute with Oyster Bay's independent directors over terms of access for him to look at company information.

"We went in flying a friendly flag - but right from the outset we've been up against it."

The stoush puts him up against another name from the Rich List: Delegat - as in, the family-owned Delegat's Wine Estate and its managing director, Jim Delegat.

Delegat's created and launched the Oyster Bay Marlborough label in 1990.

Oyster Bay Marlborough Vineyards was formed in 1999 to grow grapes for Delegat's, the cornerstone shareholder.

In May of that year, the company raised $18 million by selling 9 million shares at $2 each - shares listed on the stock exchange's NZAX board in 2003.

The company owns three vineyards in the Wairau Valley - Oyster Bay is the biggest, followed by Fault Lake and Wairau River - with 539ha planted in mostly sauvignon blanc grapes, but also chardonnay, pinot noir and riesling.

A report by accounting firm Ferrier Hodgson says the combined vineyards rank among the largest holdings in New Zealand, with full production projected at 5776 tonnes by 2009.

Oyster Bay says Delegat's is contracted to buy all the grapes at market values for a minimum of 20 years.

Yealands is after 4 million shares to secure 51.5 per cent of the company, with Delegat's after 1.57 million to get to 50.1 per cent.

Oyster Bay yesterday mailed a target company statement and independent adviser's report to shareholders.

The independent directors - Bill Falconer, Ross Keenan and Ruth Richardson - managed to have a bob each way.

They recommended that shareholders who wanted to "maximise their immediate financial return" should accept the Yealands offer.

On the other hand: "Those shareholders who wish to sell some of their shares at a premium and continue to take the major part of their returns over time, should accept the Delegat's offer."

Then, at 5.33pm on the stock exchange website, there was Yealands' new bid - $4 a share. Crikey dick.

* CV - Peter Yealands


Age: 57.
Born: Blenheim.
Education: Marlborough Boys' College.
Family: Married with two children, now adults.
Interests: Fishing, diving, hunting, cars, trucks, machinery.
Favoured phrase: "Crikey dick".