ProTen poultry sale pushed into next year with Roc Partners favourite

ProTen describes itself as the leading broiler chicken farm developer and operator in Australia. Picture: Zoe Phillips

The sale of $1bn poultry business ProTen will now likely happen next year, say sources.

Roc Partners was tipped as in pole position to buy the business, as reported by DataRoom.

Working on the sale of ProTen is Macquarie Capital, while Roc Partners has tapped Rothschild & Co for advice.

ProTen is owned by Aware Super, but Roc Partners has managed the asset on the superannuation fund’s behalf.

However, when it was put up for sale this year, it is understood to have stood down from this position so that it could bid for the business, and is now considered the contest favourite.

ProTen describes itself as the leading broiler chicken farm developer and operator in Australia, owning and operating 720 poultry sheds across 62 broiler farms in NSW, Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia and Queensland.

The business was started in New Zealand in 1987 and Aware Super took full ownership in 2018. ProTen now has about 24 per cent market share.

It has more than $1bn in hard assets that are strategically located near key processing facilities, and opportunity to expand through more development and mergers and acquisitions in what is considered a fragmented market.

Annual earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation are about $70m, while revenue is $150m.

Roc Partners is headed by former Macquarie executive Michael Lukin and last year Roc was eyeing the $400m-plus New Zealand egg producer Mainland Poultry as part of its attraction to agriculture-related assets.

It was circling SunPork, along with cotton business Ascott, and tried to buy the landlord of fruit and vegetable grower Costa, Vitalharvest Freehold Trust.

Sources say ProTen’s revenue is derived from long-term inflation-linked contracts.