The multimillionaire family shareholders of S. Kidman & Co, Australia’s largest private landholder with 11 cattle stations, have announced they are putting the business for sale.
The Adelaide-based business will be offered in its entirety as a going concern, including stock, plant and property, according to a statement from the family, which owns 98 per cent of the company.
The Kidman family, with a net worth of $364 million, is No. 37 on the BRW Rich Families list.
The stations, with a herd of more than 200,000 head of cattle, and a feedlot cover more than 100,000 square kilometres across Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory. “Many of these properties have been held by the company for more than 100 years,” the statement said.
“The portfolio includes Anna Creek Station in South Australia, which at 23,000 square kilometres is the largest cattle property in the world,” the statement said; other holdings include Durham Downs, Durrie, Glengyle, Morney Plains, Naryilco and Rockybank (Qld), Innamincka, Macumba and Tungali (SA), Helen Springs (NT) and Ruby Plains (WA).
I believe that's an area as big as Ireland and Wales combined.
Given there are few companies in Australia who are rich enough to buy such a property, it looks like a foreign entitiy will snap it up.
I wonder how they'll get around the G'ments new Foreign Investment $15 mil screening threshhold:
FIRB: Foreign Investment Review Board - General Policy
"As of 1 March 2015, the Government will reduce the screening threshold for agricultural land from $252 million to $15 million. The new $15 million screening threshold will apply to the cumulative value of agricultural land owned by the foreign investor, including the purposed purchase." |
