Murray Goulburn sale delayed

Murray Goulburn is confident it can complete its $1.31bn sale to Saputo before July, despite a two-week delay to its approval.

Murray Goulburn remains confident it can complete its $1.31 billion sale to Canadian private dairy company Saputo before July, despite a two-week delay to its regulatory approval.

The dairy processor, which will release its keenly awaited half-yearly financial results on Wednesday, was told by the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission yesterday that the release of its regulatory review of the proposed acquisition would be pushed back to March 1.

The provisional ACCC decision date was delayed due to the commission requiring more time to consider data relating to the two businesses and the Murray Goulburn takeover by Saputo, which raises competition issues especially in western Victoria.

Murray Goulburn is a hybrid farmer-owned co-operative, which until two years ago was the dominant dairy processor in Australia, handling 3.2 billion litres of milk a year in its 10 processing plants in Victoria and Tasmania.

Even though it is now smaller than rival Fonterra and has closed three factories as its milk supply from a shrinking band of farmer-owners was reduced to less than 1.8 billion litres, its sale effectively merges the second-biggest processor with the fourth-largest, Saputo.