The merger between Agricore and United Grain Growers (UGG) received official approval from the federal Competition Bureau, and the new company known as Agricore United was launched as of Nov. 1.

The proposal for the merger was earlier announced on July 30 of this year, after the boards of both companies gave unanimous approval for the merger. A vote by shareholders and delegates of Agricore was held on Aug. 30, which also gave approval.

The new board of directors held its first official meeting on Friday, and the inaugural shareholders and members meeting will be held in Saskatoon today and Thursday, Nov. 7 and 8.

At the first board meeting on Friday, the board elected Ted Allen, former chairman and president of UGG, to the same position with Agricore United, and Mel McNaughton was elected first vice-president. The Saskatchewan vice-president is Terry Youzwa of Nipawin.

Under the approval by the Competition Bureau, Agricore United has to divest itself of seven grain handling elevators in western Canada, along with a port terminal in Vancouver.

Asked if this merger will affect any operations in Saskatchewan, CEO Brian Hayward said he can't go into the details yet if there will be any closures as many issues need to be discussed, but such details will be announced at the appropriate time as the company is publicly traded.

For the most part, he added, most customers won't see any major change at the local level.

While the time line from announcement to launching of the merged company didn't seem to take long, the actual process was much more complex and time-consuming.

"Without getting into all the gory details, this was a very, very complicated thing to put together, and there's a lot of financial issues. The Competition Bureau issues were also complex," said the CEO, adding the process isn't yet completed.

"There's still a lot of work to do. It's like taking two separate organizations and making one seamless organization out of it," he said.

Under terms of the merger, members and shareholders exchanged their equity in Agricore for approximately 20.5 million shares of UGG operating as Agricore United. As a result of the exchange, Agricore United has 37.3 million shares outstanding.

Agricore United will be setting up an assisted sales program to help former Agricore shareholders who wish to sell their Agricore United shares received as a result of the merger, along with information about how many shares they own in the new company.

The newly-merged Agricore United is a farmer-directed agri-business, and is diversified into crop inputs and services, grain merchandising, livestock production services and farm business communications.