Billionaire Gina Rinehart is nearing the end of a $300 million sell-down of cattle properties across northern Australia, after selling the Willeroo and Aroona stations for over $60 million.
Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting put the portfolio spanning 1.876 milion hectares with 108,000 head of cattle to the market earlier this year in one of the higher-profile recent offerings for the Australian agricultural sector, and at a time in which record cattle prices have tempted a number of owners to the market.
The 171,000-hectare Willeroo Station has been sold to the Northern Territory’s Brett family for $40 million, while the DiGiorgio family from South Australia has picked up neighbouring Aroona Station of 147,500 hectares for $22.7 million.
Rinehart has turned a profit on the properties, having bought them for $30 million and $20 million respectively four years ago. About $2 million has been invested into Willeroo in that time, with upgrades made to water storage, fences, yards and accommodation, and more than $3 million into Aroona.
Previous sales have included the 203,000-hectare Nerrima Station for more than $30 million, and a further two pastoral stations Ruby Plains and Sturt Creek for about $70 million to Viv Oldfield, all in Western Australia’s Kimberley region.
Oldfield went on to buy the Macumba and Innamincka stations in north eastern South Australia.
The only remaining assets in the portfolio to be sold are Riveren and Inerway in the Northern Territory’s Victoria River District. Combined, they cover about 550,000 hectares and are being offered with a herd of 40,000 cattle.
Hancock retains properties across Queensland, New South Wales, the Northern Territory and South Australia.
Rabobank research shows that farmer purchasing intentions are at the highest point in at least the past five years, with 9% of Australian farmers reporting that they intend to buy land within 12 months.
Chinese-owned investor Rifa Salutary has just completed the two-year divestment program of its Australian grazing assets, offloading the large-scale cattle breeding property Cooplacurripa Station on the eastern fall of the Great Dividing Range for $35 million bare. It had listed a portfolio of 14 assets across New South Wales with initial expectations of about $150 million.
New York-based The Rohatyn Group recently offloaded the 27,879-hectare Kaiuroo cattle and cropping property aggregation in Central Queensland’s Mackenzie River district for nearly $69 million, well above the expected price of $55 million, while German family office THF Finance has sold a portfolio of cattle and irrigated fodder portfolio for over $100 million.
