Last Friday (26th Aug) I received a phone call giving me advance warning of a merger between Ager Sectus (brands = The Crossings, Crossroads Winery, 3 Stones, Braided River and Southbank Estate) and Yealands Estate (brands = Yealands Estate, Peter Yealands, Yealands Way, Full Circle, Pete’s Shed, Flaxbourne, Violet). The caller advised that the new company would represent the country’s sixth largest (measured by tonnes crushed) and would have a combined vineyard area of more than 1,500 hectares. I asked who was buying who and was told that Ager Sectus was purchasing a share of Yealands. The information was embargoed until Sunday when a media release would be provided.

The media release duly arrived, followed by an article in the Marlborough Express headed “Yealands buys wine co.” with the introductory sentence, “Marlborough wine company Yealands Estate has absorbed Hawke’s Bay-based Ager Sectus Wine Estates, to form the sixth biggest wine company in New Zealand.”

That didn’t equate with what I’d been told so I called Ager Sectus founder and chairman, Peter Cutfield, who explained that the Marlborough Express had taken a liberal interpretation of the facts. He would not confirm the exact size of his company’s investment but said that Ager Sectus had made a “significant purchase” of Yealands Estate shares and that the two companies would merge.

I then got on the blower to Peter Yealands who had a rather different view of the merger or acquisition. “I’ve bought Ager Sectus lock, stock and barrel for cash and shares”, explained Yealands, adding that business was booming. “I needed Ager Sectus for their distribution network. We’ve sold two-thirds of next month’s budget already and I’m buying in wine because I’ve run out”, he enthused.

Confused? So am I.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 30th, 2011 at 4:16 pm and is filed under Marlborough. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.