PPCS to face more scrutiny

By PAUL PANCKHURST

The meat giant once renowned for cloak-and-dagger secrecy - Dunedin's PPCS - will suddenly face much greater public scrutiny.

The listing of the company's bonds on the stock exchange will bring the South Island co-operative of 8000 farmers under NZX rules that require "continuous disclosure" of company information.

The long-running, well-publicised and much-litigated saga of PPCS' efforts to gain control of Richmond highlighted an image of the company as stealthy and secretive.

However, chief operating officer Keith Cooper said PPCS had become more open over the past two years to acknowledge its role as an industry leader.

PPCS on Thursday announced an offer to the public of up to $75 million of three-year bonds with a 9.75 per cent annual return.

The offer opens on April 21 and closes on May 21 and a priority pool of $5 million of bonds has been set aside for staff and suppliers.

Westpac is the lead manager for the issue and the co-lead and organising broker is Forsyth Barr.

The money raised in the issue will be used to replace bank debt.

PPCS owes $327 million to a Westpac-led syndicate of banks, mostly from borrowing connected with normal operations.

However, according to Cooper, just under $100 million was used to secure a 63 per cent stake in Richmond, another of the country's biggest meat companies.

The issue will largely replace that debt.

The company says the bonds will help PPCS to diversify the sources and maturities of its debt.

The bonds are the first securities associated with PPCS to be offered to the public.

The prospectus says PPCS is expecting profit to fall because of bad weather and the dollar.