Kerry Co-op’s board is busy signing off on an increased number of shareholders exiting or reducing their stake in the business in multi-million euro deals.

The Irish Farmers Journal understands that over 24 pages of commercial transactions related to Kerry Co-op share sales had to be signed off by the board at last week’s scheduled meeting.

Some farmers have sold upwards of 6,000 shares in individual deals on the grey market and through the co-op’s share redemption scheme, according to unconfirmed reports in Kerry. It has also been suggested that 23,000 shares were traded in a single deal involving one substantial investor.

Given that Kerry Co-op shares are making up to €690 each through the share redemption scheme, and around €580 on the grey market, these transactions represent multi-million euro deals.

The sale of 6,000 shares through the share redemption scheme has the potential to generate in excess of €4m.

A large number of transactions in the redemption scheme are not unusual – there were 2,990 applications in 2019 and 2,316 redemptions in 2020.

Industry sources maintain the increased recent activity on share sales is related to the failure of Kerry Co-op last year to complete the proposed joint venture for the dairy processing business with Kerry Group.

This has led to greater frustration with the board on the future direction and investment strategy of Kerry Co-op.

It has also been suggested that some farmers could be opting to de-risk their investment by selling some or all of their co-op shareholding while Kerry Group seems to be going well. Kerry Co-op holds an 11.7% shareholding in Kerry Group plc. This is valued at over €2.5bn.

Meanwhile, a special general meeting to consider a number of changes to co-op rules, which was expected to be held in August, is expected to be delayed until the meeting can be held in person when COVID restrictions allow.