Australian dairy farms owned by Gray Wigg sold to Canada’s Aurora Dairies
Australia has lost one of its largest dairy farm operations to an overseas buyer for tens of millions of dollars, increasing the foreign country’s already huge stake in Aussie farmland.
EXCLUSIVE: One of Australia’s biggest dairy farm operations has sold to offshore interests for tens of millions of dollars.
The Weekly Times has confirmed that Gippsland dairy giant Gray Wigg has sold to Aurora Dairies – owned by Canada’s Public Sector Pension Investment Board – for more than $55 million.
It is understood the deal is subject to Foreign Investment Review Board approval.
Aurora owns and operates more than 20 dairy farms in southeast Australia, producing more than 100 million litres of milk a year.
The Weekly Times reported at the beginning of September that the 2513ha Gray Wigg Pty Ltd properties had been listed for sale.
Gray Wigg Pty Ltd is run by Patrick Gray, a Gippsland trucking contractor, and local Lachlan Wigg. The Weekly Times also recently reported Saputo Dairy Australia held a mortgage on at least one of the Gray Wigg farms.
According to the listing by agent CBRE, the combined farms currently milk about 5000 cows — making it one of the biggest dairy operations in Australia. The farms currently supply an estimated 30 million litres each year to Saputo’s Maffra factory.
It is not known if the new owners will continue to supply Saputo.
Earlier this year Aurora paid $40.4 million for four dairy farms at Mt Gambier in South Australia from the ASX-listed Beston Global Food Company.
PSP manages the superannuation funds of the Canadian public sector and armed forces in addition to the 30,000 member-strong Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
It has quickly become a major force in Australian agriculture, owning more than 1.3 million hectares, with land and water investments easily exceeding $3 billion. In the past 24 months alone, the Montreal-based fund has been involved in more than $2.3 billion worth of transactions, including two of the biggest in Australian agricultural history.
In February it finalised its $854 million takeover of the ASX-listed Webster Limited – Australia’s fourth-oldest company and one of the nation’s biggest landholders with more than 340,000 hectares and 153,000 megalitres of water. Late last year PSP paid $860 million for 12,000 hectares of almond plantations near Robinvale in northern Victoria and almost 90,000 megalitres of high-security water. The water component of the deal was worth $490 million.
Both sales came just months after PSP teamed up with the Robinson family’s Australian Food and Fibre to purchase cotton giant Auscott’s Midkin vertically integrated aggregation near Moree in northern NSW for an estimated $300 million.
Additionally, in late 2018, PSP paid $208 million for a majority stake in the BFB cropping business, which owns 44,000 hectares around Temora in southern NSW, after shelling out $132.7 million in a joint venture with AFF for the 9593-hectare Bengerang and Darling Farms business in northern NSW. It also paid $16 million for a 519-hectare vineyard at Cullulleraine, west of Mildura, in Victoria.
The sale was negotiated by CBRE Agribusiness regional director Danny Thomas.
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