New Zealand producer and exporter Turners & Growers is to make a full takeover bid for citrus grower Kerifresh.

Turners is offering NZ$2 (74p) a share in cash, which pegs Kerifresh’s value at NZ$15.1 million (£5.6m).

Shareholders in Kerifresh have not received any dividends since 1992 and the company has incurred frequent losses, according to Turners & Growers.

Chairman Tony Gibbs said Turners was the one business that could get synergy benefits from Kerifresh.

“We’re heavily in the industry, we sell lemons, we sell mandarins, we sell all the ground crops they produce and we sell kiwifruit,” he said.

Kerifresh chief executive Alana Thompson said: “The company’s directors are just starting to confer on the subject, and we’ve got really nothing to say at the moment, except that we’ve received the offer.”

Gibbs told the New Zealand press the offer would be conditional on Turners, which already holds 4.6 per cent, controlling more than half of the voting rights.

“If we don’t get 50 per cent there is no offer, because we’re not allowed to keep anything under the rules and we want to be in a position of influence,” he said.

Redundancies were not ruled out, but there are no plans to lay off staff if a takeover is successful, Gibbs added.