Almost 2,400 shareholders of Kerry Co-op rolled into Killarney in buses, mud-covered jeeps and older looking cars on Monday. They left later considerably richer, some as millionaires, having voted overwhelmingly (by 82 per cent) to buy back the dairy processing assets of the Kerry Group.
The deal allowed almost 12,000 farmers and other shareholders to cash in €1.4 billion worth of co-op shares, working out at an average windfall of €120,000 – a pre-Christmas fillip in the pockets of people across Kerry and southwest Munster.
But what has the talk in Kerry been about what people might spend it on?
There might be justifiable expectation that the Kingdom could soon be a good county to pick up a decent second-hand car. But shareholders and locals expect post-Christmas purchases of not just new cars but farm machinery and perhaps land, and possibly even the repayment of debt.
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Independent TD for Kerry Michael Healy-Rae, a farmer but not a shareholder, said there would be spending and great joy.
[ Kerry Co-op payouts are not a windfallOpens in new window ]
It was, he said, truly “the deal of the century”, echoing how Kerry Group founder Denis Brosnan described it. Brosnan planted the seeds for the deal because he wanted to enrich rural people, the poll-topping TD said.
“Farmers are progressive. If a farmer gets a bit of money, he’ll build a shed, he’ll put on an extension, he’ll buy a new tractor. This is a good news story for Kerry,” said Healy-Rae.
Farmers are “conservative enough with money”, said Noel Murphy, national dairy chairman of farmers group ICMSA, the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association.
Even those who don’t cash in the shares will benefit from the increased dividend, twice a year.
Murphy, who is based in Milltown in mid-Kerry, sees the company as a very good business with strong earnings. He believes most farmers will sit on the investment.
[ Kerry Group shareholders vote through dairy processing deal with co-opOpens in new window ]
“The majority will hold on and distribute among family. There won’t be any massive rush to cash in,” he said.
The exception, however, will be if “a bit of land alongside” comes on the market. The land market in Co Kerry for the past 10 to 12 years has been heated and this too is driven by Kerry shares used as collateral.
One of the few woman shareholders at Monday’s vote arrived in Killarney by bus from Listowel.
“It’s a win-win for everyone, as Denis Brosnan said,” said the woman, who didn’t want to be named.
She didn’t doubt that the shares would be cashed in. She expected those cashing in to use the money against “machinery, loans and debts, new cars”. A lot of people were leaving as millionaires, she said.
“They were saying at the meeting they crossed the Shannon by ferry but would be coming back again by yacht.”
In the north of the county in Listowel, where the Kerry Group was founded, Fianna Fáil councillor Jimmy Moloney said the wider southwest Munster region would benefit.
Kerry Group is already a great employer in the region, he added.
“The majority of shareholders will be west Munster. This has got to be good for the region,” he said.
Auctioneers believe the Kerry share deal could increase land prices. Tom Spillane, the former Kerry footballer, based in Killarney, said good land in Kerry would always be at a premium because it was scarce, but the strength of Kerry shares had long influenced land prices in the county.
“Could it drive land prices even higher? It could,” he said of the deal.
The Gleneagle Hotel/ Brehon Hotel and the INEC centre – where the landmark vote to approve the bonanza took place – served 2,000 turkey-and-ham dinners in just under one hour and five minutes to people who attended Monday’s meeting.
“Plated up and served,” said Johnny McGuire, co-president of the Killarney Chamber of Tourism and Commerce, noting the benefits to the Killarney catering business from Kerry farmers.
“It’s an absolutely great deal for Kerry,” he said. “There isn’t much industry arriving and this is a boost for rural Ireland.
“Santa has come early.”
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