American investors snap up huge Aussie chicken farmer

Australia’s largest chicken meat farmer has been sold to a foreign buyer by the Aware Super pension fund, days after securing a 300,000-bird farm near Geelong.

The 82ha Somerset Poultry has been sold to ProTen — the huge chicken meat company offloaded by the $190bn Aware Super pension fund.

Australia’s largest chicken meat farmer has been sold by the $190bn Aware Super pension fund, with American investors swooping in to secure the huge enterprise.

ProTen, Australia’s largest broiler farming business, has been sold to American global private equity and investment company, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co (KKR). Financial terms of the sale remain undisclosed.

In May it was reported KKR was circling the broiler business with a leading bid of about $1.3bn.

Founded in 1987 in New Zealand, ProTen had been owned by Aware Super since 2018, with the company producing 68 million birds annually at the time.

However, under Aware Super’s-backing ProTen expanded to grow a whopping 174 million birds per year, or about 25 per cent of Australia’s annual consumption, supported by more than 700 poultry sheds across over 60 farms nationally.

“Our investment in ProTen is a unique opportunity to acquire a high-quality agricultural infrastructure asset, supported by availability-based long-term contracts, that plays an essential role in the food supply chain,” KKR managing director and head of Australia & New Zealand Infrastructure Andrew Jennings said.

“ProTen is very grateful for the longstanding relationship it has enjoyed with Aware Super. Over the last seven years they have been unwavering in their commitment to and investment in the business,” ProTen CEO James Wentworth said.

The ProTen transaction is expected to close later this year, subject to customary regulatory approvals.

Somerset Poultry includes six state-of-the-art broiler sheds growing almost 300,000 birds per batch.

The change of ownership at ProTen comes as the chicken grower secured a top-tier poultry operation located in Victoria’s Golden Plains region, 21km west of Geelong.

Listed for sale earlier this year, the Somerset Poultry property spans 82ha at Murgheboluc, offering six state-of-the-art broiler sheds growing almost 300,000 birds per batch.

The sale price of Somerset Poultry remains undisclosed, but is understood to have traded in line with initial expectations.

Somerset Poultry was offered to the market with price expectations of a $1.1m EBITDA and an anticipated yield in the vicinity of 9 per cent.

The asset was also offered to the market including its long-term grower agreement with the Turosi Food Solutions Group.

JLL Agribusiness agents Chris Holgar, Chris Lawlor and Jock Grimshaw handled the sale of Somerset Poultry.

Mr Holgar said the transaction underlined ongoing investor appetite for high-quality poultry infrastructure underpinned by secure long-term agreements.

Water security at Somerset Poultry is secured from Barwon Water (via a private main), the Barwon River, bore water and extensive on-farm dam storage of about 50ML.

Originally published as American investors snap up huge Aussie chicken farmer