Today’s Special Resolution will determine if our largest meat exporter remains in Kiwi hands and it is vital to ask hard questions of Silver Fern Farms’ board and management, says New Zealand First.

“Today’s Special Resolution is the last chance farmers have to keep control before they learn the hard way what being Chinese controlled feels like,” says New Zealand First Leader and Northland MP Rt Hon Winston Peters.

“If the spin SFF bigwigs put into last October’s ordinary resolution result is anything to go by, we can expect more of the same this afternoon.

“It must be remembered that today’s vote is a Special Resolution and this sets a much higher bar than the ordinary resolution they’ve failed to get away with. To pass, three-quarters of all shareholders carrying voting rights must support this resolution; not just those who vote.

“Going back to last October’s ordinary resolution, even then, only 55.219m shares out of a possible 100.379m shares voted to sell. That’s not the 82% figure spun by SFF’s shiny suits, but a bare majority of 55%.

“So with today’s vote and before writing up their stories, the media especially need to ask:1. How many “shares carrying voting rights” were eligible to vote?2. What was the outcome on a “shares carrying voting rights” basis?3. Did the resolution gain approval from at least 75% of all shares carrying voting rights?4. Demand to see the so-called legal opinion that Silver Fern Farms says gives it the right to ignore both the Companies Act and its own constitution over this major transaction.5. Copies of legal opinions backing the view of Management and the Board that selling 50% of a co-op with gross assets of some $627m is not a major transaction as defined by either statute or case law.

“Before the vote is held we must point to what the Companies Office wrote in a letter to me dated 6 May: “Our initial view is that while the allegations in your letter relate to non-compliance with the [Companies] Act, they are matters for which shareholders or other entitled persons have civil remedies they can pursue”.

“How the board and management of SFF react to today’s Special Resolution may trigger just that eventuality. This is not over, not by a long chalk,” says Mr Peters.