German billionaire bags $17m cattle farm, Chinese tycoon into cotton
The billionaire co-owner of one of the world’s biggest agricultural machinery companies, Cathrina Claas-Muehlhaeuser, has bolstered her holdings in NSW’s Liverpool Plains food bowl region after buying a historic cattle farm for $17.3 million at auction.
Ms Claas-Muehlhaeuser is chairwoman of Germany’s Claas Group, which last year reported revenue of €6.14 billion ($10 billion). She was the only bidder for Tuwinga, a 2287-hectare mixed-farming property at Bundella, about 175 kilometres east of Dubbo.
She will add Tuwinga to her Tamalie Farms holding at nearby Blackville, which are planted with about 1400 hectares of sorghum and managed by local farmer Andrew Mitchell.
Tuwinga was publicly offered for sale for the first time since being settled by the Traill family in the mid-1800s. The vendor was Angus and wagyu beef producer Mooney Pastoral Co, owned by Sydney-based T2W.
While there were four parties interested in Tuwinga, Elders agents Chris Malone and Ben Green said representatives of Ms Claas-Muehlhaeuser were the only bidders for the property, which was auctioned in the town of Willow Tree.
“We negotiated while the auction was live.” Mr Malone told The Australian Financial Review.
Tuwinga has 8.2-kilometre frontage to Tamalie Creek and a carrying capacity of up to 13,000 livestock. Mooney Pastoral Co operated it as a cattle-breeding and trading operation alongside a summer and winter crop rotation.
Mr Malone said it was expected the new owners would develop the property further.
Ms Claas-Muehlhaeuser took over from her late father Helmut Claas as chairwoman of Claas Group in 2020 (Mr Claas passed away in January 2021, aged 94).
The company was founded by Ms Claas-Muehlhaeuser’s grandfather August Claas. Her father Helmut took over as managing director in 1962 and was chairman from 1996 until he handed the reins to his daughter.
Based in Harsewinkel, Germany, Claas Group is owned by the family of Helmut Claas and the families of his late brothers Gunther and Reinhold.
Last year, Claas Group sold €6.14 billion of tractors, combine harvesters, balers and other agricultural machinery. It employs 12,000 people and has a large presence in Australia.
Another high net-worth investor, Sydney-based Jacky Cheung, has emerged as the $88 million buyer of a large cotton and cropping portfolio on the banks of the Murrumbidgee River near Whitton in the NSW Riverina.
Mr Cheung, who earlier this year paid $23 million for venture capitalist Shayne Smyth and his wife Leonie’s waterfront Pyrmont penthouse (a record for the suburb) acquired the 2807-hectare Commins Portfolio – according to local valuers – through a company called Marina Nine Holdings.
Spread across four properties within 18 km of each other, and about 3 km from Whitton, the portfolio was offered for sale by local cotton pioneers Tim and Roger Commins, who set up the enterprise 35 years ago.
LAWD agents Danny Thomas and Erica Semmens handled the sale of the portfolio, but declined to comment.
Mr Cheung will add the portfolio to his vast agricultural, residential and commercial holdings.
Property searches show Sichuan-born Mr Cheung has spent hundreds of millions of dollars acquiring blue-chip property since migrating to Australia from Hong Kong in 2019.
Apart from the $23 million penthouse at Sydney Wharf, Mr Cheung, through various entities, owns a Bunnings warehouse at Hoppers Crossing in Melbourne’s west that he paid $79 million for in 2022.
In October, he paid $32 million for a 601-ha cotton farm at Carrathool in the western NSW Riverina (about an hour west of the Commins Portfolio) while in 2021 he paid $12.5 million for a 1300-ha farm at Timor in the NSW Upper Hunter.
His residential portfolio includes a $15 million mansion at Castle Cove, another smaller waterfront apartment in Pyrmont, and a home in Mosman.
