Danish Crown had been set to merge with pork producer Tican in 2016, before the deal collapsed late on. Following the cancellation of the merger, Tican a.m.b.a., a farmer’s cooperative that owns Tican, is entering into arbitration with Danish Crown, claiming DKK20m (€2.6m) in compensation.
The disagreement hinges over whether the planned multi-million-euro merger was cancelled due to a missed deadline, or if Danish Crown abandoned the takeover due to an inability to satisfy competition conditions with central authorities.
Danish Crown had previously held talks with Tican to stop the case from going into arbitration, but these talks failed.
Head of press at Danish Crown Jens Hansen told this site the business is very confident about the dispute, where a settlement is set to be negotiated behind closed doors in 2017. “From our point of view there is no doubt that it [the merger] fell due to us not reaching an approval before the deadline.”
However, Tican a.m.b.a. has claimed the deal fell apart and is thus seeking €2.6m in compensation.
Ove Thejls, CEO at Tican, told this site that the case rests with Tican’s co-operative, and he will not have a big part to play in the arbitration hearing. Tican is now part of German food group Tönnies, and Thejls stressed the case would not involve Tican’s parent company.
“We have had a good dialogue with Tican, since we had to abandon the merger,” said Danish Crown chief financial officer Preben Sunke in a statement. “Unfortunately, it has not yet been possible to find an amicable solution, and now Tican has chosen to let an arbitrator decide the case.”
Danish Crown added it was approaching the arbitration case “with serenity”.