Ag fallout continues: Rural property guru Thomas and Mitchell see companies collapse
Two cattle companies linked to Sydney agriculture deal-makers Sam Mitchell and Danny Thomas have collapsed owing millions.
Two cattle companies linked to Australia’s most famous rural property agent Danny Thomas and aspirational farming baron Sam Mitchell have collapsed as creditors try to recoup monies owed by the two high profile men.
Mr Mitchell revealed Mitchell River Hold Co. owed $18m in debts to a Hong Kong lender ADM Capital, in a mandatory disclosure to the corporate regulator on Wednesday evening.
Mitchell River Hold Co. is owned and directed by Mr Mitchell and Mr Thomas, while another cattle company, Weelaranna — directed by Mr Thomas and Mr Mitchell’s chief of staff Kirstin Ross — is now in the hands of receivers.
The news comes after The Australian revealed Mr Mitchell, the man behind more than $500m of agricultural deals — and who boasts having blue ribbon farming connections, a former job at Harvard University and a private plane — had his WealthCheck and The Edge companies placed in receivership.
Mr Thomas made his name at CBRE before starting LAWD. On his website he describes himself as “widely regarded as one of the nation’s leading agribusiness transaction advisers,” who sold $950m of properties in his first year at the business.
Some farmers claimed to The Australian, on the condition of anonymity, Mr Thomas would approach them about selling their farms to a potential buyer at prices which seemed too good to be true and did not disclose he was in a business relationship with the buyer.
Before Mr Mitchell’s world started to collapse his pitch was simple: find joint venture investors using his seemingly blue-ribbon Harvard background and farming links who would buy multimillion dollar agricultural properties which he would then promise to run, maintain the infrastructure on and build carbon credit registered programs.
KordaMentha documents show the Bondi-based Mr Mitchell failed to live up to his end of the deal and, on more than one occasion, failed to stump up any of the money required to pay the deposit or settlement.
On the properties which did settle, it’s alleged he did not contribute to meeting debt obligations.
A KordaMentha liquidators report states the Kimberley-based Weelaranna collapsed last year after failing to pay up for the purchase of pastoral leases across three Western Australian cattle properties.
The report shows despite agreeing to an upfront $1.4m deposit for the leases, Weelaranna failed to pay up on October 10, 2022 and then renegotiated a reduced purchase price of $25m, which it again failed to pay.
Mr Thomas resigned as a director in May 2023 and the sellers of leases issued a notice of non-payment 22 days later. Ms Ross remained a director until August 2023.
Records show Weelarana told the sellers they would not pay the deposit “because the number of cattle identified as part of the muster on the Stations was significantly below the number of cattle that had been indicated by the Seller that were on the Stations”.
Only $2.5m of the initial $28m purchase price was tied to cattle numbers.
The liquidators noted, since its inception, Weelarana had “insufficient working capital” and relied on funding from related parties, with just $11,531 in the bank.
This was set against debts run up between the two men of more than $240,934.
The report notes Weelarana was insolvent “on or around 21 June 2023,” stating this was when the company was first unable to pay its debts. Mr Thomas had left the firm by this point.
“From the date of insolvency to the date of our appointment, the Company accrued $33,570 of debts. Consequently, it appears any potential insolvent trading action may have limited commercial merit,” liquidators noted.
About a year after this failure, one of the two mens’ other joint companies, Mitchell River Hold Co. also collapsed, owing $18m to Hong Kong lenders ADM Capital.
ADM Capital also recently called in debts to Mr Mitchell’s main holding company, The Edge.
Another entity, Mitchell River Cattle Company — controlled by the two men — was the vehicle used to make a number of property purchases in the Northern Territory.
Because real estate agents are only self-regulated and on a state-by-state basis, and Mr Thomas’s deals stretch all the way from the Northern Territory to Victoria where he is based, there is not one singular authority to question his nondisclosure of business interests.
It is unclear exactly when Mr Thomas and Mr Mitchell, who both failed to return calls to The Australian, first met.
Agri Investor reported back in 2020 the Harvard University Endowment Fund, where Mr Mitchell worked for several years until 2020, sold chunks of its property portfolio for more than $120m through Mr Thomas, who was then at CBRE.
Their Mitchell River Cattle Company was also involved in the purchase of the Maryfield and Limbunya stations in the Northern Territory — through WealthCheck — for $38.2m and $65.2m from Colin Ross’s North Star Pastoral.
Mr Mitchell has subsequently listed the 521,883ha Limbunya Station and the 147,300ha Maryfield Station for sale through Mr Thomas with new carbon projects attached to the properties, expected to generate a combined 10.4 million Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) during a 25-year crediting period, with a 100-year permanency period.
Several carbon projects have been registered by companies associated with Mr Mitchell, offering regeneration of native forests across swathes of inland Northern Territory.
But, many local landowners dispute the likelihood of the properties being able to generate this amount of carbon credits, a view shared by industry figures who expressed scepticism many of the properties purchased by Mr Mitchell would perform.
The Clean Energy Regulator would not answer questions about how many projects it has approved which are then revoked because of improper behaviour, nor whether rogue behaviour was something it was taking a specific interest in beyond the test printed on its website.
In an emailed response the regulator said “participants must satisfy the fit and proper person test to participate in the ACCU Scheme and be issued ACCUs”.
The Federal government has “committed $2.7 billion” in taxpayer dollars to purchase 217 million ACCUs from 443 projects through 15 reverse auctions held between 2015 and 2023.
In the past few years the Sydneysider has either announced or closed on more than $500m worth of transactions with big names including Brett Blundy, Harold Mitchell and Eddie Listorti.
Wealthy cattle barons, citrus and avocado farmers, carbon advisers, truckers and self-employed cattle counters are among those alleged to be owed money by companies associated with Mr Mitchell.
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