GO.FARM swoop on Riverina water and vineyard

A billion-dollar Australian agriculture developer has purchased a 547ha property and huge water portfolio in a $40 million deal.

CK Life Sciences have sold the 547ha Balranald Vineyard and attached water portfolio to GO.FARM in a $40 million deal.

A billion-dollar Australian agricultural investment company has swooped on a 547ha vineyard in the NSW western Riverina region paired with more than 4400ML of attached water entitlements, in a deal worth $40m.

Backed by fruit and vegie king Robert Costa, managing director Liam Lenaghan and an Australian institutional investor, GO.FARM has purchased Hong Kong Stock Exchange-listed CK Life Sciences’ Balranald Vineyard and 4465ML of Murrumbidgee High Security water entitlements. CK Life Sciences, a mammoth biotechnology company, recently announced to its investors it had sold the Balranald Vineyard for $2,047,500 and the water entitlements portfolio for $37,952,500.

Located at Ivanhoe Rd, north of Balranald, the vineyard is the third GO.FARM has purchased from the Hong Kong biotechnical company after it previously snapped up CK Life Sciences’ 700ha Stephendale vineyard at Yenda, launching a $120 million almond-growing expansion in the NSW Riverina last year.

GO.FARM managing director Liam Lenaghan, who will be a speaker at The Australian’s Global Food Forum in Brisbane on Wednesday, said vines at Balranald will be removed and likely replaced by olive groves across the property.

“At Balranald we have been led by the water opportunity and the ability to access a large amount of high security water ahead of the federal government’s announced water buybacks,” Mr Lenaghan said.

“The NFF (National Farmers’ Federation) has set a goal for $100B in annual farmgate production by 2030 and we want to be part of that. This goal represents a 25 per cent uplift, so we are going to need more than incremental gains to find that production.

GO.FARM managing director Liam Lenaghan during tomato planting operations at their Lake Boga property in northern Victoria. Picture: Aaron Francis

“Best estimates say we will need $400bn in investment capital to help unlock this and we want to be part of that solution by finding undervalued and under-utilised assets and transforming them, such as with the Balranald Vineyard.

“There has been some distress for the warm inland grape industry, where five years ago red varieties were worth $600 a tonne, but at present they are worth about $350 a tonne.

“That’s a 40 per cent drop in grape values while production costs have increased, so we think there’s an opportunity to convert these existing assets of scale, which come with water portfolios.”

The Balranald Vineyard was part of the Belvino Investments portfolio of 11 properties, a wholly-owned subsidiary of CK Life Sciences and part of its Australian agricultural portfolio worth more than $2 billion, backed by the family of Hong Kong’s richest man Li Ka-Shing.

Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-Shing in 2018. Picture: Anthony Wallace

The Balranald Vineyard was previously leased by ASX-listed Australian Vintage Limited, planted to 470ha of warm climate vineyards that yielded between 11,000 and 13,000 tonnes of predominantly red grape varieties annually.

However, in May this year Australian Vintage announced the premature end of its long-term lease of the vineyard with CK Life Sciences’ Belvino Investments, which was not due to expire until after the 2031 vintage.