The future of the proposed Mataura Valley Milk company near Gore is in doubt after the resignation of two founding director-shareholders and a change in shareholding.
Southland businessman Ian Tulloch has taken a cornerstone shareholding through Valley Enterprises, an investment entity he majority owns with another Gore investor, Paul Johnstone.
Valley Enterprises owns two thirds of the shares in McNab Ventures NZ Ltd along with investors from Singapore.
Waikato, Taranaki and Auckland.
McNab Ventures in turn owns nearly 80% of Mataura Valley Milk Ltd (MVM).
Founding directors and shareholders of MVM, Chris Shelley and James Williams, have resigned, with Mr Williams saying in a statement that he feared construction of the Gore milk processing factory could be put on hold for a prolonged period.
"The sole purpose of MVM was to build a dairy processing plant.
"Other board members clearly hold other objectives which was not what I invested in.
"When it became obvious that Mataura Valley would be abandoning all operations and essentially mothballing the project indefinitely, it was time to leave."
Mr Williams said he wanted to be a hands-on investor in a strategic operational asset, not an unrepresented minority shareholder.
He said his company, Mataura Valley Properties, still controlled "a substantial parcel of land" surrounding the site at McNab, north of Gore.
An initial investor, Alan King, from Singapore, said in a statement the company was being reorganised and that included securing a cornerstone shareholding and bank finance.
As a result of that, he said the company would be even more locally focused, given Mr Tulloch's majority interest.
Creditors were being cleared as claims were validated and agreed to, he said.
The proposed $90 million MVM plant was to have been operational this season and Mr Williams said it had lost its strategic advantage because another plant could be up and running within 18 months.
"Essentially, any bare land in Southland could be ready for a factory in the next season."
Mr Williams said several dairy processing projects, not just MVM, had suffered because of the recession and volatility in commodity prices, asset values, interest and exchange rates.
