Cody McBride has been hired as the new supervisor for the Picture Butte Feeder Co-operative, implying its suspension from Alberta’s Feeder Associations Loan Guarantee program will soon be lifted.
The hiring was confirmed in an Apr. 28 email from restructuring officer Alvarez & Marsal to the co-operative, with the hiring of an administrator coming soon as well.
The largest cattle feeder association in Canada was prohibited from issuing new loans under the program by Alberta agriculture minister RJ Sigurdson on Jan. 27.
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The ministerial order was issued after a report from Alberta Agriculture and Irrigation’s Inspection and Investigation Section alleged a number of financial and regulatory red flags, including obstructing provincial inspections, accepting ineligible feeder members, using guaranteed loan proceeds for improper purposes and providing more allowances than were permitted.
The fallout had included resignation of the co-op’s board of directors, dismissal of the supervisor and administrator, and court approval to appoint Alvarez & Marsal Canada as restructuring officer. Its issued mandate was to work toward lifting the ministerial order.
“The restructuring officer has been working closely with the minister’s office and the lenders over the past several weeks to have the ministerial order lifted and negotiate updated credit term arrangements between PBFC and the lenders, respectively,” read the Alvarez & Marsal Apr. 28 email.
“We anticipate providing a further update later this week on the timing of when PBFC will be back to ‘operations as normal’ to allow PBFC being able to provide loans to its member’s without restrictions. In the interim, the restructuring officer has been delivering overage payments to its members (for January and February) and March overage payments are being sent to those members this week.”
As part of removing the ministerial order, the restructuring officer is also reviewing all existing members of the co-op to ensure they meet the eligibility requirements and developing/revising the co-op’s internal operating policies and governance structure.
McBride officially takes over as the new supervisor effective May 5.
McBride has more than 25 years of expertise in the agriculture and financial sectors, including seven years running feeder finance companies, five years as a brand inspector and 13 years working at ATB Financial in agriculture lending according to Alvarez & Marsal.
The Feeder Associations Loan Guarantee program has been active in Alberta since the Great Depression and is intended to provide “relatively easy access to low interest, leveraged financing backed by a government guarantee,” according to the province.
Founded in 1991, the Picture Butte Feeder Co-op is the largest of the 45 feeder associations in Alberta in its use of the province’s loan guarantee program, states multiple reports.
Reports show the co-op had administered slightly more than $281 million in loans to its members to finance cattle purchases, and in turn, owed approximately the same amount to a syndicate of banks, at the time of the loan program injunction in late January.
The Picture Butte feeder co-op had 227 members as of August 2024.
