GrainCorp quashes ADM rumours

"It's not frustrating for me. I'm not paying any attention to what's being said," he told a company results briefing this week.

"It's there, but it's not affecting the way we're working at all.

"There's no impact on morale."

With the eastern Australian harvest well underway and dry seasonal conditions continuing to chew at the company grain receival and export earnings he said GrainCorp staff were busily tackling the various logistics and market challenges and opportunities ahead of them, rather than getting distracted by the media's interest in ADM.

The focus was on running GrainCorp so it could do the best possible job for growers during harvest, while also developing earnings diversification options in domestic and overseas markets to help its risk management strategies.

While some industry analysts and reporters have enthusiastically suggested new Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Treasurer Scott Morrison would be more open to overturning the government's 2013 decision to block ADM's controversial takeover plan, Mr Palmquist said the only difference the recent leadership change had made to GrainCorp was to give the company new hope for a much-needed boost to rail infrastructure funding from Canberra.

Mr Palmquist said ADM had not talked with GrainCorp about making a new takeover bid or increasing its current 19.9 per cent share stake.

There had been no suggestion of any change in ADM's ownership intentions.

While GrainCorp management did hold occasional discussions with ADM management and other significant shareholders, the change in federal government leadership had prompted no talk of a second bid, as speculated in recent financial media reports, or any suggestion that ADM could soon quit GrainCorp's share register altogether.

"I don't have anything more to answer. There's nothing to say."