Fund managers snap up $150m of NT, Qld cattle stations
Corporate investors looking to cash in on the strong outlook for the beef sector have snapped up over $150 million of cattle stations in Queensland and the Northern Territory offered for sale by long-term family owners.
In Queensland’s Fitzroy Region, Consolidated Pastoral Company, which is owned by the UK-based Hands Family Office, has acquired the Jimarndy aggregation from the Simon family for $48 million. CPC will add it to its vast pastoral operation spread across Western Australia, Queensland and the Northern Territory valued at over $1 billion and where it runs over 300,000 cattle.
The Jimarndy aggregation totals 17,638 hectares and comprises the adjoining properties of Jimarndy, Tawarri and Tandarra. It was put up for sale as part of succession planning by the Simon family.
Jimarndy’s sale to CPC set a regional record of about $7,650 per adult equivalent, the commonly used metric for calculating relative land values throughout Australia, according to selling agents CBRE and Nutrien Harcourts.
CPC will use Jimarndy to fatten weaner calves before they enter the feedlot, a practice known as “backgrounding”.
Managing director Troy Setter said the development of CPC’s Northern Australian breeder properties necessitated further investment in background land.
Jimarndy is located 245 kilometres north-west of Rockhampton and 208 kilometres south-west of Mackay, providing good access to at least two major livestock selling and export centres.
CBRE agribusiness managing director David Goodfellow, who handled the sale alongside colleague Edward O’Dwyer and Nutrien Harcourts Rockhampton, said favourable seasons conditions, confidence in the outlook for commodity prices and the need to rebuild the national cattle herd drove strong demand for Jimarndy from agricultural corporations, financial institutions and large-scale private investors.
The national cattle herd dropped from about 29 million to 24 million during the drought and, two and a half years later, has only been rebuilt to just over 26 million.
Growing beef demand
“We have at least two years of further rebuilding to reach 28 million cattle in Australia, let alone reaching 29 million. This, combined with growing Asian demand for beef products, is underpinning confidence in the outlook for both domestic and global beef prices over the next few years,” Mr Goodfellow said.
According to rural lender Rabobank, rising beef export volumes and a lower Australian dollar also bode well for the sector.
“Favourable seasonal conditions will continue to support producer demand and Australian cattle prices, despite downward price pressures at the consumer end of the supply chain,” the bank said.
In the Northern Territory, fund manager WealthCheck has purchased the Limbunya and Maryfield cattle stations offered for sale by Colin Ross’s North Star Pastoral.
The two properties, which have been on the market for almost two years and offer 670,000 hectares of prime NT grazing land, were acquired for more than $100 million by the Canberra-based fund manager which is overseen by Sam Mitchell, Amanda Fisher and Craig Smith.
Joining WealthCheck in the deal was fund manager, AAM Investment Group that is headed by Garry Edwards, which has bought North Star Pastoral’s 50,000 head of cattle for more than $50 million to bolster its other cattle operations in the NT.
Veteran rural property agent Col Medway from LAWD, said the deal highlighted how corporates and institutions were finding innovative ways to participate in a market and compete against “nimbler” farming families.
“I think that’s a really interesting sort of differentiation where people are sticking to their knitting, and different investors are looking at that asset and taking advantage of it in completely different ways,” Mr Medway said.
