AGT going private

[bucket]

so hows is it that a company bleeding losses for as long as they have have a CEO that can buy the company to go private?

AS a CEO ...Katib doesn't earn enough to put that kind of money away without a healthy income tax bill....

If the India market turns just after privatizing the shareholders would be out a major share price increase ...

And don't forget the railway infrastructure they are involved in with 100s of millions in government money already...

They can't pay on the driveway on delivery and the majors are very close price wise....and I can leave the scale with a cheque...


This deal is so close to criminal its not funny.....he is still on a steady government drip...

And the ****ing guy wrote himself in a break fee of 11.5 million if it doesn't proceed...

[farmaholic]

What would be the benefit of going private then claiming bankruptcy?

Who knows where the funds are actually coming from to buy shares...maybe little to none are actually the CEO's.

https://www.google.ca/amp/s/leaderpost.com/news/local-news/agt-foods-ceo-and-board-chair-lose-appeal-over-15m-in-frozen-shares/amp

[bucket]

What would be the benefit of going private then claiming bankruptcy?

Who knows where the funds are actually coming from to buy shares...maybe little to none are actually the CEO's.

https://www.google.ca/amp/s/leaderpost.com/news/local-news/agt-foods-ceo-and-board-chair-lose-appeal-over-15m-in-frozen-shares/amp

You caught that ...wonder if the average Joe farmer knows that AGT with all their government funding have a slush fund in one of those offshore countries that the CRA is too stupid or told by the trust fund twins not to go?

[Daylate]

He's got friends in low places. Not in this country.

[jazz]

He's got friends in low places. Not in this country.

You got that right. I sell nothing there. Their plant is like 5 miles from my land and I haul it all the way to MJ to simpsons.

[walterm]

They can't pay on the driveway on delivery and the majors are very close price wise....and I can leave the scale with a cheque...

Is this not an infringement of the Canadian Grain Act. Sec 56 (1) and Sec 61 (a). And should be enforced by the CGC.

[bucket]

They can't pay on the driveway on delivery and the majors are very close price wise....and I can leave the scale with a cheque...

Is this not an infringement of the Canadian Grain Act. Sec 56 (1) and Sec 61 (a). And should be enforced by the CGC.

Yes but so is leaving Viterra in Moose Jaw without a scale ticket so the trucker phones later for his weights....

CGC won't do a ****ing thing about enforcing the law and Viterra head office has told me they have lots of locations without a truck scale ...That doesn't make it right but CGC covers their eyes to it and keeps their 130 million...

[walterm]

Yes but so is leaving Viterra in Moose Jaw without a scale ticket so the trucker phones later for his weights....

CGC won't do a ****ing thing about enforcing the law and Viterra head office has told me they have lots of locations without a truck scale ...That doesn't make it right but CGC covers their eyes to it and keeps their 130 million...

That is why I continually say and believe that farmers were screwed when the Office of Assistant Commissioners was done away with and not replace with Grain Farmers Advocacy Office that was advised by gov'ts own implemented review of the Commission. ( Compas Review 2006 ) What is the use in wasting money on a 3rd party review if not going to adopt recommendations?

[sumdumguy]

You got that right. I sell nothing there. Their plant is like 5 miles from my land and I haul it all the way to MJ to simpsons.

Moose Jaw? You have a lot of top-notch plants closer than MJ.

[sumdumguy]

That is why I continually say and believe that farmers were screwed when the Office of Assistant Commissioners was done away with and not replace with Grain Farmers Advocacy Office that was advised by gov'ts own implemented review of the Commission. ( Compas Review 2006 ) What is the use in wasting money on a 3rd party review if not going to adopt recommendations?

I agree, the grain commissioners were a definite asset. Harper turfed a lot of ag programs in west. I wondered where the f he came from.

[bucket]

Harper did away with the grain commission....Trudeau will finish the rest with this royalty scheme....

[Marusko]

so hows is it that a company bleeding losses for as long as they have have a CEO that can buy the company to go private?

AS a CEO ...Katib doesn't earn enough to put that kind of money away without a healthy income tax bill....

I was wondering this too, so your comment inspired me to look into it. From an article released at the time of the announcement. Bear with me cause some of this I'm learning about as I go along.

The Management Group that proposed the takeover (currently owning 17% of shares) would get financing from Fairfax Financial Holdings, an investment company that has its own shares in AGT already. Fairfax itself owns just 0.75% shares directly.

But there's more to it than that.

Fairfax also holds about 5.7 million share purchase warrants, which they got in exchange for purchasing 'interest bearing securities' to the tune of $190 million (this as I understand it is essentially a loan) which matures in 99 years. from a closing date of Jan 1, 2018.

Warrants seem to be like stock options, except new shares are created when the warrants are exercised, so if Fairfax was to exercise the warrant, the money they pay for the shares goes directly into AGT, it wouldn't buy existing shares from another shareholder.

The warrants are valued at $33.25 per share and expire after 7 years, When the deal was announced on Aug 31, 2017, shares were worth about $24 each. Now they are under $18.

If they exercised those warrants, they would own 19% of the company. (but of course paying nearly double what the share price currently is.)

So, derive from that what you will. Seems to me that they are looking at their warrants that are worthless because the open market deems AGT shares to be worth half of what the warrants cost them, so they're making moves to take AGT private where things like share price are a lot more "flexible". But what do I know, I'm just a farmer.

My sources:

https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/agt-food-and-ingredients-announces-receipt-of-a-proposal-to-effect-a-management-buyout-689235641.html

http://www.agtfoods.com/download/456

[bucket]

He has been hiding /squirrelling money away from the shareholders for years....not sure how no one has caught it although one analysts did and Katib laughed it off....not funny to shareholders watching their value disappear with no real dividends...

but where does a guy get off on offering to buy his own company and writing his own break fee....

I guess the 100 million from trudeau didnt hurt that bad to fix a rail line in 3 months that omnitrax couldn't do in 2 years.

[Marusko]

He has been hiding /squirrelling money away from the shareholders for years....not sure how no one has caught it although one analysts did and Katib laughed it off....not funny to shareholders watching their value disappear with no real dividends...

but where does a guy get off on offering to buy his own company and writing his own break fee....

I guess the 100 million from trudeau didnt hurt that bad to fix a rail line in 3 months that omnitrax couldn't do in 2 years.

I don't know how that break fee is even legitimate.

This is from August:

https://www.producer.com/2018/08/investor-firm-rejects-agt-purchase-offer/

Wonder what they think now

[LEP]

Not defending Katib, but the break fee is to cover part of the costs to put together the financing. Fairfax would get a hefty fee to look at the deal and probably even more if it proceeds. It won't go to pad his bank account.

The reason he is going private is because the shares are undervalued in his opinion which likely puts him in breach of his lending covenants with current lenders. If his current package was put in place when the share price was much higher his debt to equity would be off. I have talked to several people who went public and regretted it exactly because of the way the market doesn't value potential as much as steady results every quarter. Small business rarely works that way.