Kerry Group CEO Edmond Scanlon is certainly keeping his cards close to his chest when it comes to the joint venture deal being negotiated with Kerry Co-op.

On a conference call with institutional investors on Friday morning, broker analysts questioned Scanlon about a potential joint venture deal with Kerry Co-op for its primary dairy business here in Ireland.

However, Scanlon would not be drawn on the subject and refused to answer questions on “media speculation” relating to the negotiations.

As reported by the Irish Farmers Journal, negotiations are ongoing between Kerry Group and Kerry Co-op over the future relationship between the two sides. One option on the table is a proposal where Kerry Group will offer farmer members of Kerry Co-op the opportunity to buy a 60% majority stake in the company’s primary dairy business, with a further option to buy the remaining shares in the business over time.

Shares in Kerry Group have more than 3% on Friday morning to close to €113 after the company announced half-year results which show profits in the first half of the year were down almost 20% to €316m.