AgriCast Episode 7: November 21, 2024 | Elders' Delta acquisition and what farmers can expect - video Dailymotion

Agribusiness writer Andrew Marshall chats to host Kirsten Diprose about Elders’ $475 million Delta acquisition and its impact on farmers.

Transcript

00:00Hi, welcome back to AgriCast, Kirsten Dippros here, and it's been a big week in agribusiness

00:13and our agribusiness writer is with us for the National Network, Andrew Marshall.

00:19Welcome to AgriCast.

00:20Tell me about Elders.

00:22It's a pretty big acquisition of Delta, $470 million.

00:27Yes, it's sort of come out of the blue a little bit.

00:30Elders announced their intention to buy Delta Agribusiness, which is originally a company

00:36that started in New South Wales about 18 years ago and is now quite significant in the farm

00:42services space.

00:43Assuming, of course, that the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission gives them the thumbs

00:49up for all the sites that they're going to buy.

00:52Is a takeover like this likely to mean job losses across either Elders or Delta?

00:57How will it look in the future for the business?

01:01Elders is saying that nothing will change at Delta.

01:03The business will continue to operate as a standalone, won't be rebranded as Elders.

01:08There won't be any changes in staffing numbers, we're told.

01:11What about farmers?

01:12Any impact in terms of merchandising or the way that farmers receive a service?

01:17There could be a few changes there.

01:19Elders is quite impressed with Delta's agronomy and technical expertise and it's an area that

01:24Elders wants to expand or has been expanding in and wants to build up some more weight

01:30there.

01:31Farmers may actually see some input from the Elders side of things and the two working

01:35together could improve the hands on the ground or the knowledge on the ground that's available

01:40to farmers.

01:41ACM Agri has been also reporting on the changes to the Elders financial bonus incentive program

01:45and that was announced to employees about two weeks ago.

01:49What sort of shape is Elders in?

01:50Elders is in pretty good shape.

01:52It's had a bit of a bad news week in some respects because they've had to report a 55%

01:58drop in their full year profit for the 2023-24 year.

02:02But it's the first time they've recorded something like that for many years.

02:06In the scheme of things, a 55% cut to a $45 million profit isn't too bad.

02:14It's been a pretty tight season.

02:16The expectation is that the deal will go through before June next year and most of the waiting

02:23will be for the ACCC to make its decision.

02:25Andrew Marshall, thank you so much for joining us on AgriCast.