50 of Australia’s biggest farmland deals and offers in the past five years

An investigation into the country’s top 50 farmland deals in the past five years has found foreign cash is behind $10.5 billion of sales.

The one million-hectare Walhallow Station in the Northern Territory’s Barkly Tablelands region, currently owned by Australian-born, Bahamas-based billionaire Brett Blundy. Picture: Supplied

Foreign cash is behind $10.5 billion of Australia’s biggest agricultural land sales in the past five years.

An investigation into the country’s top 50 deals since 2016 found 37 transactions exceeding $200 million — three of which topped $600 million.

Overseas capital was used in more than 40 of the 50 biggest deals, as buyers from Canada, the US, Singapore, The Netherlands and the Bahamas competed for our assets.

Horticulture assets, backed up by reliable water entitlements, were in strongest demand followed by irrigated cropping and beef.

Senior director of valuation and transaction firm LAWD, Danny Thomas, said the rural property market had performed “phenomenally” over the past five years, both at institutional and family-farm levels.

“There has been unprecedented demand and an extraordinary volume of transactions,” Mr Thomas said.

“Permanent plantings are where a lot of the money has been focused and after that irrigated and dryland row cropping.”

The country’s top 50 deals since 2016 found 37 transactions exceeding $200 million. Picture: Colin Murty

Last week, in sealing one of the biggest deals in Australian farming history, the pension fund for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, PSP Investments, acquired Auscott Limited from its US owner JG Boswell Company.

The super group can now lay claim to three of the biggest deals of the past five years – worth a combined $2.21 billion.

PSP has snapped up more than $4 billion worth of Australian land and water assets in recent years.

In February last year it finalised its $854 million takeover of the ASX-listed Webster Limited – Australia’s fourth-oldest company and one of the nation’s biggest landholders with more than 340,000 hectares and 153,000 megalitres of water.

Months earlier it paid about $860 million for 12,000 hectares of almond plantations near Robinvale in northern Victoria and almost 90,000 megalitres of high-security water and $300 million for cotton giant Auscott’s Midkin vertically integrated aggregation near Moree in northern NSW.

Overseas capital was used in more than 40 of the 50 biggest deals.

Last week, in a joint venture with the Robinson family of Moree, NSW, PSP paid more than $500 million to secure the remaining Auscott assets.

It followed approval of the sale by Australia’s Foreign Investment Review Board.

PSP was involved in the $325 million purchase of BFB Farms cropping business at Temora in NSW in 2019 as well as paying $132.7 million for two northern NSW cropping properties in 2018 and $97 million for the Erregulla Plains property at Mingenew in Western Australia last year.

Other major investors in recent years have included Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets, which in recent weeks increased its bid to $348.1 million for citrus and berry farmland owner Vitalharvest.

Macquarie spent $200 million in 2019 for a 49 per cent stake in Australia’s biggest cotton farm – Cubbie Station at Dirranbandi in Queensland. The biggest pastoral deal of the past five years was the $500 million sell-off of Consolidated Pastoral Company’s northern beef assets to UK investor Guy Hands.

50 OF AUSTRALIA’S BIGGEST FARMLAND DEALS AND OFFERINGS IN THE PAST FIVE YEARS

1. ALMOND ORCHARDS, ROBINVALE VIC (2020)

$860 MILLION

SELLER: Olam Orchards (Singapore)

BUYER: PSP Investments (Canada)

DEAL: 12,000 hectares of almonds and almost 90,000 megalitres of high-security water

2. WEBSTER LIMITED (2020)

$854 MILLION

SELLER: Webster Limited (ASX listed)

BUYER: PSP Investments (Canada)

DEAL: 340,000 hectares and 153,000 megalitres of water

3. LAWSON GRAINS (2021)

$600 MILLION – FOR SALE

SELLER: Macquarie Agriculture

OFFERING: 105,000 hectares of cropping land across 10 aggregations in NSW and Western Australia

4. AUSCOTT LIMITED (2021)

$500 MILLION-PLUS

SELLER: JG Boswell Company (US)

BUYER: PSP Investments (Canada)

DEAL: 22,000 hectares of developed irrigation country, more than 143,000 megalitres of water

entitlements and five ginning facilities

5. CONSOLIDATED PASTORAL COMPANY ASSETS (2020)

$500 MILLION

SELLER: Consolidated Pastoral Company

BUYER: Guy Hands (UK)

DEAL: Nine pastoral leases totalling 3.2 million hectares in the Northern Territory and Queensland,

300,000 cattle and a 90 per cent stake in an Indonesian feedlot business

6. NORTH AUSTRALIAN PASTORAL COMPANY 80% STAKE (2016)

$400 MILLION

SELLER: Foster family and MP Evans

BUYER: Queensland Investment Corporation

DEAL: 5.8 million hectares of land and 178,000 cattle

7. S KIDMAN AND CO (2016)

$386.5 MILLION

SELLER: Descendants of pastoral icon Sir Sidney Kidman

BUYER: Outback Beef consortium of Gina Rinehart and Shanghai CRED (China)

DEAL: 17 pastoral leases, 155,000 cattle and a feedlot

8. PROTEN LIMITED CHICKEN FARM OPERATORS (2018)

$370 MILLION

SELLER: ProTen Limited

BUYER: ROC Partners-First State Super

9. VITALHARVEST (2021)

$348.1 MILLION – DEAL PENDING

SELLER: Vitalharvest Freehold Trust (ASX listed)

LEADING BIDDER: Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets

DEAL: Includes citrus and berry farms leased to Costa Group

10. BFB FARMS, TEMORA NSW (2019)

$325 MILLION

SELLER: Proterra Investment Partners (US)

BUYER: PSP Investments (Canada)

DEAL: Controlling stake in cropping and logistics business comprising 48,700 hectares and 332,000-

tonne storage site

11. HASSAD AUSTRALIA PROPERTIES (2018)

$300 MILLION

SELLER: Hassad Australia

BUYER: Macquarie Agriculture (Paraway Pastoral Company and Viridis Ag)

DEAL: Nine farms covering 100,000 hectares

12. MIDKIN AGGREGATION, MOREE NSW (2019)

$300 MILLION

SELLER: JG Boswell Company-Auscott Limited (US)

BUYER: PSP Investments (Canada)

DEAL: 17,300 hectares, 57,600 megalitres of water and cotton ginning facilities

13. HANCOCK AGRICULTURE/S KIDMAN AND CO STATIONS (2021)

$300 MILLION – FOR SALE

SELLER: Hancock Agriculture and S Kidman and Co

OFFERING: Seven cattle stations totalling 1.88 million hectares in the Northern Territory and

Western Australia and 110,000 cattle

14. VAN DIEMEN’S LAND DAIRY, CIRCULAR HEAD TAS (2016)

$280 MILLION

SELLER: Van Diemen’s Land Company

BUYER: Moon Lake Investments (China)

DEAL: More than 7000 hectares of land and 17,890 dairy cows

15. CUBBIE STATION 49% STAKE, DIRRANBANDI QLD (2019)

$200 MILLION

SELLER: Cubbie Agriculture (China)

BUYER: Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets

16. SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE FUND PORTFOLIO (2018)

$185 MILLION

SELLER: Sustainable Agriculture Fund

BUYER: Various investors

17. JASPER FARMS AVOCADO, BUSSELTON WA (2018)

$180 MILLION

SELLER: Delroy family

BUYER: Ontario Teachers Pension Plan (Canada)

18. MIRANDA DOWNS STATION, NORMANTON QLD (2021)

$150 MILLION – FOR SALE

SELLER: Stanbroke Pastoral Company

19. ROCKLANDS AND TANBAR STATIONS, QLD (2016)

$148 MILLION

SELLER: Western Grazing

BUYER: Macquarie Agriculture-Paraway Pastoral Company

20. WYADRA AND COWL COWL STATIONS, HILLSTON NSW (2020)

$140 MILLION

SELLER: Harvard University Endowment Fund (US)

BUYER: Hancock Agricultural Investment Group (US)

21. ARGYLE DOWNS, NEWRY AND AUVERGNE STATIONS, WA AND NT (2019)

$135 MILLION

SELLER: Consolidated Pastoral Company

BUYER: Clean Agriculture and International Tourism (Vietnam)

22. BENGERANG AND DARLING FARMS, NSW (2018)

$132.7 MILLION

SELLER: Webster Limited (ASX-listed)

BUYER: PSP Investments (Canada)

23. PIANGIL ALMOND ORCHARD, PIANGIL VIC (2020)

$129 MILLION

SELLER: United Almonds, Bright Lights Agribusiness and Lake Lucas Almonds

BUYER: Select Harvests (ASX-listed)

24. DAIRY FARMS, KATUNGA VIC (2019)

$120 MILLION

SELLERS: Various

BUYER: goFARM

25. SUNDOWN VALLEY, ARMIDALE NSW AND GUNNEE FEEDLOT, INVERELL NSW

$120 MILLION (2018)

SELLERS: Sundown Pastoral Company

BUYER: Gina Rinehart-Hancock Prospecting

26. JEMALONG, JEMALONG CITRUS AND MERROWIE, HILLSTON NSW (2018)

$115 MILLION

SELLER: Twynam Agricultural Group (Argentina)

BUYER: MRA Merrowie Pty Ltd (US)

27. MARGOOYA AND CARNARVON, ROBINVALE VIC (2016)

$115 MILLION

BUYER: Auston Corporation (Canada)

28. NORMAN FARMING AGGREGATION, TOOBEAH QLD (2020)

$105 MILLION-PLUS

SELLER: Norman Farming

BUYER: Hancock Agricultural Investment Group (US)

29. WAVE HILL AND CATTLE CREEK STATIONS, NT (2021)

$104 MILLION

SELLER: Western Grazing

BUYER: Syndicate including Jumbuck Pastoral Company

30. MERRI PARK, BEVERIDGE VIC (2021)

$100 MILLION-PLUS

SELLER: Descendants of Sir Cecil Looker

BUYER: SIG Group

31. MOORA, EUROLEY AND NEWMARKET, NSW RIVERINA (2020)

$100 MILLION – FOR SALE

SELLER: Harvard University Endowment Fund (US)

32. CARLTON HILL STATION, KUNUNURRA WA (2016)

$100 MILLION

SELLER: Consolidated Pastoral Company

BUYER: Shanghai Zhongfu (China)

33. WOODHOUSE STATION, MELTON VIC (2016)

$100 MILLION

SELLER: Baillieu family

BUYER: Fucheng Group (China)

34. WALHALLOW STATION, ELLIOTT NT (2016)

$100 MILLION

SELLER: Macquarie Agriculture-Paraway Pastoral Company

BUYER: Brett Blundy Retail Capital (Bahamas)

35. SAWA PASTORAL STATIONS, KIMBERLEY WA (2016)

$100 MILLION

SELLER: SAWA Pastoral Company

BUYER: Consolidated Australian Pastoral Holdings

36. SOUTH CALANDOON, GOONDIWINDI QLD (2021)

$100 MILLION

SELLER: Duddy family

BUYER: Unknown

37. MOORAL STATION, HILLSTON NSW (2020)

$98 MILLION

SELLER: Rural Funds (ASX listed)

BUYER: Hancock Agricultural Investment Group (US)

38. ERREGULLA PLAINS, MINGENEW WA (2020)

$97 MILLION

SELLER: Smart family

BUYER: PSP Investments-Daybreak Cropping (Canada)

39. MANTUAN DOWNS STATION, SPRINGSURE QLD (2020)

$92.6 MILLION

SELLER: Clark and Tait

BUYER: North Australian Pastoral Company

40. SUGAR FARMS, BUNDABERG QLD (2020)

$81.1 MILLION

SELLER: MSF Sugar (Thailand)

BUYER: Rural Funds (ASX listed)

41. BANONGILL STATION, SKIPTON VIC (2020)

$80 MILLION

SELLER: Laguna Bay Agricultural Fund (US)

BUYER: Local farming consortium

42. DAIRY AGGREGATION, SMITHTON TAS

$80 MILLION-PLUS

SELLER: Various

BUYER: Laguna Bay Pastoral Company (US)

43. NEWSTEAD AND PARADISE, INVERELL NSW (2016)

$78 MILLION

SELLER: Sundown Pastoral Company

BUYER: Macquarie Agriculture-Paraway Pastoral Company

44. NICOLETTI PORTFOLIO, WA (2019)

$78 MILLION

SELLER: John Nicoletti

BUYER: Saudi Agricultural and Livestock Investment Company (Saudi Arabia)

45. POULTRY FARMS, GRIFFITH NSW (2019)

$72 MILLION

SELLER: Rural Funds (ASX listed)

BUYER: ProTen Investment Management

46. TELOPEA DOWNS, TELOPEA VIC (2018)

$70 MILLION

SELLER: Hassad Australia (Qatar)

BUYER: AJ & PA McBride

47. TANUMBIRINI AND FOREST HILL STATIONS, KATHERINE NT (2020)

$70 MILLION

BUYER: Langenhoven family-Rallen Australia (South Africa)

48. GUNDALINE STATION, CARRATHOOL NSW (2018)

$70 MILLION

SELLER: Southern Ag fund including Blue Sky (ASX listed), ABP (Netherlands) and Duxton (Singapore)

BUYER: Optifarm (Netherlands)

49. ACE DAIRY PORTFOLIO. GIPPSLAND VIC (2021)

$70 MILLION – FOR SALE

SELLER: Duxton Asset Management

50. TUMBAR STATION, JERICHO QLD (2016)

$67.7 MILLION

SELLER: Bevan Doyle

BUYER: Georgina Pastoral Company