DEAR SIR: Make no mistake about this. Next week’s vote is not in the Glanbia shareholders’ interest. It is, however, a great idea if you are a Glanbia executive.

Since November 2012, when Glanbia Ingredients Ireland (GII) was created and €215m was spent on new steel to much fanfare, no net gain has been accrued to the shareholders of Glanbia Co-op from this joint venture.

GII’s market price has been rock bottom of the milk price leagues. How could this happen with the correctly projected milk supply and ultra-modern facility that was built in Belview?

You may ask about the good parents of this fledgling. One parent supported its own (the farmer co-op shareholders helped themselves to the tune of 1.4c/l last year), while the other lined its bulging pockets with record profits and premiership footballer salaries. Why would Glanbia plc sell its consumer products and agribusiness portfolio if it was making profits? Because it’s not. Any business making no money is a liability. Offload it to the farmers and it suddenly becomes a great idea. Sell a few shares and we’ll take your €112m. Thank you very much. But we’ll give you some luck money in return (that’s from the sale of your own assets, but it sure does taste sweet).

But wait – Glanbia Ireland will invest another €250m in more dryers. The only new market for powder has proven to be EU intervention. Fonterra moved away from dryers several years ago, recognising that powder is a developing world product, not exactly a premium winner.

This Glanbia Ireland deal is not good for any shareholders, milk suppliers or dry shareholders.

While milk suppliers are subsidising themselves to keep up with the other processors, both sets of shareholders are losing their hugely valuable plc shares held in their name by Glanbia Co-op and sending their money into a black hole.

There is light at the end of the tunnel, however, if the shareholders vote no. I would urge shareholders to demand a total spinout of the €2bn worth of shares in the plc – this would be worth €100,000 per shareholder on average, but this would be higher for milk suppliers as they are bigger shareholders on average. Glanbia management won’t want that because they want to continue their Lionel Messi lifestyles, but it isn’t their asset, it’s ours.

The Glanbia Ireland deal needs to be rejected – supporting it is only good for managers who are “selling” us their asset-stripping plan.