Farm ownership Australia: Major investor profiles
GET to know the major players who are muscling into Australian farmland ownership as revealed by a special Weekly Times investigation.
GET to know the major players who are muscling into Australian farmland ownership as revealed by a special Weekly Times investigation.
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GINA RINEHART
WHEN it comes to staking a claim on the Australian farming landscape, mining magnate and Australia’s richest person, Gina Rinehart, has led the charge.
Ms Rinehart has put together an impressive portfolio of properties totalling about 2.2 million hectares in recent years in addition to her two-thirds stake in Outback Beef, the joint Australian-Chinese consortium that paid $386.5 million for the nation’s biggest landholder, S Kidman and Co, in late 2016.
Her buying spree continued into last year, snapping up the 151,000ha Aroona Station at Katherine in the Northern Territory last March, followed by the Maydan feedlot at Warwick in Queensland last June, the 171,000ha Willeroo Station at Katherine in October and a 21,000ha aggregation of four properties near Roma in Queensland in December.
Her biggest holding outside the Kidman portfolio is the 550,000ha Inverway and Riveren stations in the Northern Territory’s Victoria River district, which she purchased for about $60 million in 2016.
ANDREW ‘TWIGGY’ FORREST
FROM mining to dining, Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest sees a great future in agriculture. And he’s among the top-end-of-towners putting his money where the mouths are.
Mr Forrest and wife Nicola have made a strategic investment in the northern Australian beef industry in recent years and their Minderoo Group now oversees about 1.28 million hectares across six properties in their home state of Western Australia. On it they run about 50,000 cattle.
The Forrests purchased his former family property, the 240,000ha Minderoo Station, near Onslow in the Pilbara in 2009, before adding the 490,000ha Nanutarra-Uaroo in 2012.
Brickhouse Station (225,000ha) at Carnarvon followed in 2015, a year before the 273,000ha Minilya Station, near Coral Bay, was added.
Minderoo Group also leases the 56,000ha Urala Station, just north of Minderoo, with 70km of coastline.
The Forrests paid a reported $40 million for Harvey Beef, Western Australia’s largest beef processor, in 2014.
JOHN McKILLOP
HASSAD Australia will place a greater emphasis on lamb and grain markets following a year of rationalisation during 2017.
The Qatari sovereign wealth fund, founded in 2009 and headed up by John McKillop, owns nine farming aggregations totalling more than 150,000ha.
It offloaded five aggregations last year: the 125,000ha Clover Downs Merino property at Cunnamulla in Queensland, the 2632ha Kaladbro Station at Strathdownie, as well as aggregations at Warren in NSW, and at Burra and the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia.
Hassad’s investments currently comprise farms in Victoria, NSW and Western Australia.
Its biggest farm is the 47,677ha Telopea Downs Station at Telopea in western Victoria. It also owns the 8244ha Barton Station at Moyston, which it purchased in 2011, and the 7448ha Englewood Plains at Wagga Wagga.
There are three other NSW properties, Old Bundamar (22,562ha) at Trangie, Urawilkie (25,932ha) at Coonamble and Gindurra (8516ha) at Canowindra, with the remaining three properties in Western Australia totalling 28,495ha.
TROY SETTER
CONSOLIDATED Pastoral Company could well become Australia’s billion-dollar baby if plans to sell the operation are realised.
CPC is Australia’s largest privately owned beef producer, running 400,000 cattle over 16 properties and more than 5.5 million hectares.
UK-based Terra Firma Capital own the majority stake in the business, which they bought from the Packer family in 2009, and they officially placed it on the market in March. Troy Setter (pictured) is the company’s chief executive.
The bulk of the CPC business is in the Northern Territory, with large holdings also in Queensland and Western Australia.
Its flagship properties include the 1.03 million hectare Newcastle Waters Station at Barkly in the Northern Territory, which it has owned for 35 years, and the 852,300ha Nockatunga Station at Thargomindah in Queensland. CPC also owns the 28,000-head Lampung and 7500-head Medan feedlots in Indonesia.
Its most recent property purchase came last year when it acquired the 3941ha Emu’s Nest property at Biloela in Queensland for $8.3 million.
COLIN BELL
ICONIC Riverina pastoral operation FS Falkiner has a long and proud history.
And it remains the jewel in the crown of the Bell family’s Australian Food and Agriculture, despite the company, or a share of it, being offered for sale last year.
At the time, there was talk the company could fetch as much as $330 million.
Colin Bell, of Bell Securities, is one of five owners of AFA, which stretches over 224,138ha around Conargo, Hay and Coonamble districts of NSW.
The Conargo properties total 122,935ha, the Hay properties encompass 57,624ha while Wingadee and Netherway at Coonamble cover 44,846ha. The operations includes 11,000ha of irrigated cropping, 22,000ha of dryland cropping, 4000 Hereford breeding cows and 79,000 Merino breeding ewes.
A feedlot licensed to carry 5000 cattle and 15,000 sheep was recently built on Peppinella. The Bell family purchased the FS Falkiner properties from News Limited — publisher of The Weekly Times — in 2000.
SIR MICHAEL HINTZE
SIR Michael Hintze could well be Australian agriculture’s knight in shining armour.
The British-Australian businessman, who has a net worth of about $1.8 billion, owns more than 65,000ha across 16 farms in Victoria, NSW and Queensland.
The founder of the $12 billion CQS global fund manager, Sir Michael started putting his MH Premium Farms portfolio together in 2007 and now owns a diverse range of properties growing lamb, wool, beef, sugar, wheat and cotton.
Last year he snapped up the showpiece 1951ha western Victoria property Cheviot Hills at Penshurst for $10 million after buying the 2573ha Deltroit Station at Adelong in southern NSW in 2016.
Deltroit recently hosted a dinner for the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cambridge while they were in Australia to attend the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.
Most of Sir Michael’s farms are in southern NSW, including the 3568ha Burrangong at Young, the 969ha Glaisnock at Young, Rippling Water at Tumbarumba (2105ha), Springfield at Boorowa (4917ha) and Watson Park at Yarra, near Goulburn.
MH Premium Farm’s biggest property is the 12,548ha Marshmead at Walgett in northern NSW.
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