Kerry Co-op says it has no comment in response to a remark by Denis Brosnan that it shouldn’t buy Kerry Group’s dairy business.
Mr Brosnan is the founder of Kerry Group and is a former chief executive and chair of the multinational company.
Kerry Group has operations in more than 50 countries.
However, Kerry Co-op remains its largest shareholder, owning 11 per cent of the business, an investment worth around €1.6 billion.
Denis Brosnan told the Sunday Business Post that instead of Kerry Co-op buying Kerry Group’s milk processing assets, the co-op itself should be liquidated and money returned to investors.
Mr Brosnan said instead, a new co-op should be set up to represent only milk suppliers.
At present, dairy farmers control the board of Kerry Co-op despite owning fewer than one-third of shares.
Denis Brosnan said the board should be equally representative of shareholders who are not milk suppliers.
Mr Brosnan said dairy farmer shareholders in Kerry Co-op need to find a way of funding the potential €600m deal to buy Kerry Group’s dairy business to offset the risk of legal action by non-farmer shareholders in the co-op.
He questioned Kerry Co-op’s plan to buy Kerry Group’s dairy business when the majority of the co-op’s investors have no background in milk processing.
Kerry Co-op says Denis Brosnan is entitled to express a view and that it wouldn’t comment further.
