Gina Rinehart sells 22,700ha farm
A major cattle aggregation linked to Gina Rinehart’s pastoral interests has changed hands.
Prominent Queensland Wagyu producer Laird Morgan and family are acquiring the majority of the Rockybank holding in a deal speculated to be worth over $60 million.
The 22,667 hectare aggregation, part of the broader S. Kidman & Co grazing portfolio, was offered amid ongoing criticism of Queensland’s foreign land tax regime, cited by operators as adding materially to holding costs for partly foreign-owned pastoral assets.
Ms Rinehart’s Hancock Agriculture and S. Kidman & Co, in which she holds a 33 per cent stake (the balance is controlled by China based Shanghai CRED), continue to rationalise parts of their Queensland pastoral footprint while maintaining broader exposure to cattle production assets across eastern Australia.
Last year the latter bought a 5003ha pastoral asset in New South Wales’ New England.
US businessman Sam Swire was that vendor.
That deal was worth c$75m.
Recently Ms Rinehart also personally bought a Brisbane CBD office and is seeking to repurpose the Perth headquarters of Hancock Prospecting with a mixed-use project with a hotel and apartments (continues below).
Laird Morgan boosts portfolio
Rockybank in the Maranoa region, is near Tingun, 25 kilometres south of Roma.
The three-holding grazing and dryland cropping aggregation – the 16,441ha Rockybank, Holyrood (4,145ha) and Maffra South (2,082ha) – was marketed as a backgrounding and breeding operation, part of a wider regional holding network used across the Kidman system.
Hancock Agriculture and CRED paid $386.5m for the broader Kidman portfolio in 2016. S Kidman & Co was that seller, holding it three years.
LAWD’s Danny Thomas brokered the latest deal to two families.
The Laird Morgan business operates a large-scale Wagyu and commercial cattle breeding enterprise on the Darling Downs.
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