Analysis of Financial Statements: Local Farm Supply, Marketing Cooperatives

摘要

This report analyzes the balance sheets and income statements of local farmsupply and marketing cooperatives, comparing 1999 and 1998 and trends over the past 10 years. The data represent four cooperative sizes and types. Common-size income statements and balance sheets compare different cooperative sizes and types. Trends for major balance sheet and income statement items and ratio analysis compare and contrast cooperatives by size and type. RBS began keeping detailed statistics on mergers, acquisitions, consolidations, bankruptcies, and other M/C activities in 1993. Of the 367 events involving grain cooperatives, most occurred in recent years (53 percent in 1996 and 1997), and among cooperatives having less than $15 million in total sales (63 percent). These cooperatives were located principally in the heartland. Eighty-seven percent occurred in either the Corn Belt or the Southern Plains. Almost 70 percent (252 of 367) involved cooperatives merging with another. A small number of cooperatives either merged with (9) or were acquired by (18) investor-owned-firms. This report analyzes the operational and financial characteristics of the cooperatives that were merged or consolidated (M/C) during 1993-97. The report also frames M/C and surviving cooperatives in the context of agricultures economic restructuring. Lessons learned provide insights to the challenges that lie ahead for grain cooperatives hoping to thrive.