Full coverage: Devenish

The livestock nutrition business has sold assets, outsourced non-core functions, and refocused on its feed ingredients business. With less debt, it is again capable of modest investment.

The agribusiness group is suing Richard Kennedy and a farming company owned by the former EY Entrepreneur of the Year winner’s two sons.

The funding aimed to turn the Belfast company into a global leader of integrated animal, human and environmental health solutions. Having sold down assets, it is refocusing on livestock feed ingredients instead.

The long quest for equity investment is finally bearing fruit at the indebted livestock nutrition group. It took the sale of its research farm and improved terms for new shareholders, though.

The Co Meath land acquired by the Government to establish Ireland’s new national park was collateral for debt owed by the Belfast-based livestock nutrition group. The deal is part of a wider financial restructuring plan.

By selling the research farm touted as Ireland’s answer to climate change, the livestock nutrition and agricultural technology group is closing a symbolic chapter. But the true meaning of the decision emerges from Devenish’s debt history.

The Sligo businessman is putting an end to a long career at the head of the group that helped him win the Entrepreneur of the Year competition.

To complete its conversion from feed manufacturer to green ag-tech solutions provider, Owen Brennan’s group needs more finance – and to attract new investors, it has promised to favour them in a future sale of the business. Will they match the valuation put on the group in recent internal transactions?

A destructive fire plunged the Belfast-based agri-tech group into the red in 2020 and triggered a board reshuffle, but growth was slowing before that. To turn R&D into profit, its CEO Richard Kennedy says the group now wants to bring in new shareholders.

The Belfast-based livestock nutrition company is investing massively in its new global research and development centre in Co Meath, where it hopes to produce carbon-neutral beef and dairy by 2025. But the lenders behind a €118m refinancing package are keeping a close watch as its existing business faces the challenges of Brexit and Covid-19. To provide guarantees, Owen Brennan’s group has been reorganising.