Sask. lentil giant back in private hands after 12 years on the TSX
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One of the world’s largest lentil companies is back in private hands after more than a decade on the Toronto Stock Exchange, a decision its chief executive says was prompted by volatile pulse prices and “broken” public equity markets.


“If the value of the company is constrained by the public market, then we should take it private and continue to grow,” said Murad Al-Katib, who led the shareholder group whose bid valued AGT Food and Ingredients Inc. at around $440 million.


Now, AGT can continue its natural evolution — which includes innovation aimed at creating a “farmgate to plate” business — without the “noise” of regulatory and disclosure requirements, short sellers and other challenges facing public companies, he said.


“We’re going to focus now on that innovation platform. We’re focused on an integration of infrastructure, grain handling, value-added processing and distribution. This is the strategy that we’ve had and (our backers) have agreed that it’s the right strategy,” Al-Katib added.


“That’s the linkage of our short-line railways to port facilities to our value-added processing, both in Canada and around the world, and a continued move into ingredients and consumer products.”


Al-Katib founded the company now known as AGT in his Davidson, Sask. basement 16 years ago. The firm, which is thought to handle about a quarter of the world’s lentils, buys and processes pulse crops before shipping them around the world.


Last summer, Al-Katib and his backers, including the Toronto financial giant Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd., unveiled plans to buy back all of the company’s shares for $18 each, a price that at the time represented a 37 per cent premium.

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