Greencore Group has declined to comment - for now - on a report that the E120m sale of its malting business to France's Groupe Soufflet has collapsed, but signalled it may expand on the claims at Thursday's annual meeting.

A spokesman for the Irish food company told Agrimoney.com that he was unable to confirm or deny a report that the sale had been undermined by the poor state of the malt market, which has been hit by a weakening in demand blamed on the economic crisis.

"For your information, we will be holding our annual general meeting on Thursday where we will be providing a full update of the trading situation," the spokesman added.

The statement follows a report in the Irish Examiner that Groupe Soufflet had decided against the deal in the face of broader sector difficulties, and an alleged decision by Heineken to source more of its malt from outside Greencore.

Series of suitors 

Greencore in November unveiled the potential sale of the division, which has plants in Belgium England, Ireland and Scotland, to raise funds for expansion into the US consumer foods sector.

The group is also completing the sale of its water business to Scotland's Highland Spring.

At the time, Greencore said it had received "a number of unsolicited approaches" for the malt business from international rivals, with France's Axereal, US-based Cargill and Australia's GrainCorp, which bought a malting business last year, among other companies rumoured to be interested.

The deal raised some concerns among, particularly Irish, malting barley farmers over their position should the malt business be bought by a French company.

Greencore shares closed down E0.01 at E1.30 in Dublin.