12 March 2014
The FromFarmers Cooperative, ForFarmers B.V.’s majority shareholder, has announced that, after consulting with its members, the Members’ Council has decided on a number of changes to its constitution. On 28th November 2013, the FromFarmers Cooperative’s Members’ Council gave its agreement to the possible next step of moving ForFarmers B.V. from an external trading platform to a public market. This was then followed up with a number of decisions taken during the Members’ Council Meeting on 12th December 2013 which secures the FromFarmers Cooperative’s control and ensures the FromFarmers Cooperative remains attractive to both existing and new members.
The measures required to secure the future of the Cooperative have been discussed with the members over the past months. A number of measures were once again highlighted and further fine-tuned following on from these discussions. The FromFarmers Cooperative’s Members’ Council has therefore agreed to the following adjustments:
- There will be no new feed equivalents with effect from 2017, the existing feed equivalents will continue to exist after 2016. Members will receive a payment after 2017, based on the feed equivalents used. Feed equivalents can continue to be traded on a trading platform.
- The Cooperative will provide ongoing capital in the form of ForFarmers certificates. These will not be credited to the members’ participation accounts. Approximately 8 certificates per used feed equivalent were put in members’ names every year up until 2012. This will become respectively 6, 5, 4 and 3 certificates per used feed equivalent per year from 2013 up to 2016. This means the FromFarmers Cooperative will keep control of over 17.5% of the certificates itself. This means that together with the members who own certificates and/or participation accounts, the minimum percentage of 20% has been secured and which allow the cooperative to exercise its right to vote. This percentage is needed to secure the control.
- The cooperative will not be purchasing any certificates itself.
- Contrary to earlier reports, any possible results payments will be made for used feed equivalents from 2013 to 2016.
- A special financial scheme will be introduced from 2017 for young farmers for the purchase of feed equivalents.
The FromFarmers Cooperative’s Members’ Council has used these adjustments to interpret its members’ requirements. The conditions under which the cooperative will agree to a possible step which would result in ForFarmers B.V. moving from its current external trading platform to a public market remain unchanged. These conditions ensure that:
- the Cooperative has and keeps control of important subjects;
- the ‘good feed at a competitive price’ principle is safeguarded;
- protection measures are in place against take overs;
- the Cooperative is given the right to recommend 4 of the 6 ForFarmers B.V. officials;
- the Cooperative board can only consist of members of the cooperative;
- we are going to work on developing a Cooperative which is attractive to both existing and new members.
The Members’ Council supports ForFarmers B.V.’s intention to deal with the next steps during the general shareholders meeting scheduled for 15th April 2014.