Kidman directors back Rinehart cattle empire bid

Mining magnate Gina Rinehart is close to securing the Kidman cattle empire after posting a new $386.5m bid.

Chairman of Hancock Prospecting Gina Rinehart. Picture: AAP

Mining magnate Gina Rinehart is closer to securing the S. Kidman & Co pastoral empire with the company’s board unanimously backing an increased offer lobbed by Hancock Prospecting and its Chinese partner Shanghai CRED.

The $386.5 million bid for the S. Kidman & Co pastoral empire narrowly betters a $386m blockbuster offer earlier this week by a consortium of four wealthy farming families.

The Australian first revealed Ms Rinehart’s interest in the sprawling cattle portfolio in August, with Hancock Prospecting confirming a $365m bid alongside minority partner Shanghai CRED, a Chinese firm led by billionaire Gui Guojie.

The consortium of the Buntine, Brinkworth, Harris and Oldfield families, led by Northern Territory cattleman Sterling Buntine, had outbid Hancock Prospecting and Shanghai CRED, talking up the all-Australian nature of the proposal which would not have to go through the Foreign Investment Review Process.

However, if the BBHO consortium is chosen as preferred bidder, it would also have to pay Kidman’s $3.8m contract break fee to Hancock Prospecting.

The bid will require FIRB approval, but Hancock Prospecting will acquire the entire portfolio if it is not forthcoming, Mrs Rinehart said in a statement.

“Sidney Kidman has special meaning to me given our families historical ties dating back more than a hundred years when my grandfather, James Nicholas, owned stations together with Sir Sidney in South Australia and they jointly owned a successful coach business in the east as well as in West Australia,” she said.

“I am from a station background, having grown up on Mulga Downs and Hamersley stations both in the outback - a childhood that develops resilience and that I loved, indeed I still have Mulga Downs station today.”

S. Kidman & Co is one of Australia’s largest beef producers, with pastoral leases covering 101,000 square kilometres across South Australia, Western Australia, Northern Territory, and Queensland.

Kidman’s chairman, John Crosby, said: “Under the Hancock ... offer, the core Kidman business will remain intact and the Kidman staff and legacy will be looked after.”

An earlier bid by Shanghai Pengxin and Shanghai CRED, alongside local partner Australian Rural Capital, was rejected by Scott Morrison on national interest grounds, the second time a foreign buyer had been knocked back.

Shanghai CRED’s decision to split from the Shanghai Pengxin consortium followed Mr Morrison’s rejection of a $371m bid in April.

Mrs Rinehart has begun to aggressively expand her cattle holdings in the Northern Territory and Western Australia, most recently swooping on two pastoral stations spanning more than 550,000ha owned by Indonesian firm Japfa Santori.

That deal, finalised earlier this year, added the Riveren and Inverway stations to a portfolio that includes the Liveringa and Nerrima stations, as well as the 400,000ha Fossil Downs Station in the Kimberley — acquired last year for as much as $30m.