Business Opinion:There is a story, apocryphal no doubt, that at the denouement of the 2000 US elections, the government of Cuba offered to send observers to reassure the American people that the ballot was free and fair.
After all, they pointed out, the outcome of the election depended on the results of a contested ballot in a state run by a brother of one of the candidates.
Not only that, the final decision lay with a law officer appointed by the candidate's brother and who was seen as a protege of their family and political party. And the final issue, from the Cuban, point of view, was that if the candidate in question got his way, he would win the presidency of the United States, despite getting less votes in total than his rival.
Not surprisingly the American people decided to put their faith in the checks and balances of their system and George Bush was duly elected.
Shareholders in the two Fyffes spin-offs Total Produce and Blackrock find themselves in a similar situation, albeit on a smaller scale. Last week the two announced they have set up a joint venture to buy 135 acres of land at The Ward in Dublin for €25 million. The vendor of the land was Balkan Investment Company, the private investment vehicle of the McCann family, which has 6.38 per cent of Blackrock and 10.6 per cent of Total Produce.
They also have a further interest via their 10 per cent stake in Fyffes, which owns 40 per cent of Blackrock. Carl McCann, the executive chairman of Blackrock is also the chairman of Total Produce. Neil McCann, his father, controls Balkan, which bought the land approximately 10 years ago as a speculative investment.
Viewed through the eyes of Che Guevara, the deal looks a bit like the McCann family offloading some investment land at a tidy profit to a couple of listed companies they control but don't own as the property market starts to take a turn for the worst.
And indeed the revolutionary cadres would also highlight that Blackrock paid a mere €13.5 million for an adjoining 120 acres last year. This, however, is something of a red (pun intended) herring, as the land bought this week includes 36 acres zoned for agribusiness purposes, while the existing Blackrock land bank is zoned agricultural.
But, bad puns aside, there are legitimate questions to be asked about the deal, not least as the McCanns and Fyffes started to breath the rarefied air of the moral high ground when they took a high profile and ultimately successful insider trading action against Jim Flavin and DCC.
Total Produce and Blackrock are at pains to point out that the deal was negotiated at arms length. The joint venture company they set up had its own property advisers and legal advisers. As did Balkan.
They have also said that Carl McCann absented himself from any board or management discussions related to the deal, which took nine months to conclude. McCann adopted a similar stance in relation to Blackrock's purchase of its original holding at Corrstown last year.
This is comforting, but the most persuasive argument that can be put forward to counter suggestions that the McCanns have obtained some unfair advantage is that the transaction does seem like a pretty good deal for Total Produce and Blackrock, as well as a neat solution to a number of related problems.
It gives Total Produce a site on which it can relocate its central Dublin and Swords operations in one modern facility, while affording Blackrock, which is Total Produce's landlord in central Dublin, an opportunity to developed this valuable property. Both companies will share any speculative gains in the value of the land, which is close to a new motorway and Dublin's commuter belt.
Indeed, it could be argued that rather than taking advantage of the situation, the McCanns are in fact facilitating a solution to a number of problems that overhang a group of companies in which they have very significant interests.
Perhaps the most serious criticism that can be levelled against this deal is that it has the feel of something that was in the ether long before the three-way split of Fyffes.
That split came about for a number of reasons, among them the need to counter the perception that despite its stock market listing, Fyffes was in effect a McCann family business.
The question now is whether we have replaced one McCann family business with three?
jmcmanus@irish-times.ie
