S. Kidman & Co., once one of SA’s most-lauded family companies, to move to Queensland

Billionaire Gina Rinehart is making further moves up north, relocating the headquarters of her $390m cattle empire S. Kidman & Co to Queensland.

Billionaire Gina Rinehart bought S. Kidman & Co. in late 2016. Picture: Supplied

The proud history of one of South Australia’s most feted family companies is drawing to a close, with billionaire Gina Rinehart to move the headquarters of S. Kidman & Co. to Queensland.

The company, which remains one of Australia’s largest cattle owners with 171,000 head, was founded by Sir Sidney Kidman in 1899.

Later dubbed “the cattle king”, Sir Sidney left home aged 13 to work as a sheep drover, before launching a droving and trading business with his brother, then buying into the rapidly growing Cobb & Co coach business.

He expanded into cattle and grew S. Kidman & Co. into an empire which, when it was sold to a consortium comprised of Ms Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting and Chinese company Shanghai CRED in late 2016, was the largest private landholder in Australia.

The flagship Anna Creek Station in SA had been carved out of the deal, due to its proximity to the Woomera defence testing area, and when the Hancock consortium sold the Innamincka and Macumba stations also in SA earlier this year, the Kidman’s cattle operations in the state came to an end.

Cattle at Innamincka station, in SA’s Far North.

S. Kidman & Co. confirmed on Wednesday that it was moving its head office to Queensland as part of a greater focus on the Sunshine State.

The company declined to give further details of where or when the office would be relocated.

All of S. Kidman and Co.’s agricultural assets are now located in either Queensland or the Northern Territory.

The company also sold several cattle stations in Western Australia when it divested its SA stations this year, and said the sales were consistent with its approach of improving and then selling its agricultural assets.

The sale of the cattle empire to Ms Rinehart and her Chinese partner took 18 months in all, with then-Treasurer Scott Morrison intervening on more than one occasion to block bids from majority-owned Chinese consortia on national interest grounds.

The Rinehart consortium eventually won the day with a $368.5m bid, beating out a group of wealthy families including the Brinkworth farming family based in SA’s southeast.

According to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, S. Kidman & Co and its parent company Australian Outback Beef, employ more than 150 people with revenue of $66.7 m in 2021.

Its operations, incorporating backgrounding, feedlotting and product branding, delivered a net profit after tax of $11.5 million.

Its net assets were listed at $392m.

Sir Sidney was a friend and business partner of James Nicholas, Ms Rinehart’s maternal grandfather.

Originally published as S. Kidman & Co., once one of SA’s most-lauded family companies, to move to Queensland