Australian Food and Agriculture portfolio relisting after US buyers back out of $780m deal
Volatile global share markets have claimed a big-ticket casualty, with US buyers backing out of a $780m deal to buy Aussie farms. Here’s what it means
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Volatile global share markets have claimed a big-ticket casualty, with US buyers backing out of a $780m deal to buy Aussie farms.
The vast agricultural portfolio, which spans 13 farms across the Deniliquin, Hay and Coonamble districts of NSW is returning to the market after an 11th-hour contract termination.
Bell Potter Securities, which had originally put the 225,000ha Australian Food and Agriculture (AFA) diversified portfolio on the market in 2023, will again handle the sale.
Further details about the relisting are yet to be revealed.
Privately owned AFA had struck a deal in August 2024 with Agriculture & Natural Solutions Acquisition Corporation (ANSC), a NASDAQ-listed, Cayman Islands-incorporated entity backed by Riverstone Holdings and Impact Ag Partners.
The transaction had received Foreign Investment Review Board approval by December, with plans to list the merged business on the New York Stock Exchange.
However, ANSC confirmed in an April 11 filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission that the agreement was “mutually terminated” the day before.
In an earlier filing ANSC said they were discussing with AFA the best path forward “in light of the increasingly volatile equity market conditions”.
The document also pointed to the potential risks of acquiring portfolios outside the US, including “higher costs” and issues with cross-border transactions”.
The sale would have seen ANSC acquire AFA’s full portfolio.
These include historic properties such as Wanganella and Boonoke stations — home to the renowned Wanganella and Poll Boonoke Merino studs — as well as extensive dryland and irrigated cropping operations, a 12,000-head feedlot at Conargo, and water entitlements exceeding 54,000ML.
At the time of its listing AFA ran 78,000 Merino breeding ewes generating wool, Merino wethers and prime lambs, and supplies elite Merino genetics from the Wanganella and Poll Boonoke Merino studs.
Around 4000 Hereford breeding cows underpin the marketing of 2000 steers annually, with the potential to boost numbers through steer trading matched to available feed resources.
Irrigated cropping layouts over 11,000ha grow rice, cotton, winter cereals and forage requirements.
Founded in 1993 by Colin, Andrew and Lewis Bell – the co- founders of stockbroking firm Bell Potter – AFA is majority owned by Bell Group Holdings and Alastair Provan, with US hedge fund billionaire Ray Dalio also holding a stake.
The owners have a preference to find a buyer to purchase the business as a whole.
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Originally published as Australian Food and Agriculture portfolio relisting after US buyers back out of $780m deal
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