AUSTRALIA’S largest privately-owned lotfeeding business, Mort & Co, is looking for one or more large investors to fund expansion of existing assets and development of new ones.
The capital raising process is a low-key, off-market affair, and has not been widely telegraphed in industry circles. Beef Central understands the process is now well advanced, and a number of domestic and offshore interests have shown interest.
In response to an inquiry from Beef Central about a possible sale process for the Mort & Co business, the company instead referred us to an advice to shareholders announcing a strategic capital raising to “leverage the opportunity to expand the company’s feedlot footprint, with undeveloped license capacity at Pinegrove and Yarranbrook, and the recently approved license for a new greenfield feedlot at Gogango, near Rockhampton.”
Under the capital raising plan, the Mort & Co fertiliser division will be separated out, and owned and run independently. Some existing Mort shareholders may take up a position with the fertiliser division, while others will stay with the lotfeeding and broader business.
Major shareholders in the Mort & Co business are Charlie Mort and Central Queensland beef producers Richard and Dyan Hughes, from Wentworth Cattle Co near Clermont. Mr Hughes sits as board chairman. Between them, Messrs Hughes and Mort own more than 60pc of the business, with the remainder held by a group of about 20 smaller investors – mostly with interests in the cattle or beef industry.
Beef Central wrote recently about delays in the start of Mort & Co’s large Gogango greenfield feedlot development project in Central Queensland, caused by high construction costs and the capital commitment required.
Managing director Charlie Mort is currently overseas in India, and was not available for an interview for this article. However he said via text that the capital raise would give a liquidity option for shareholders, as well as allowing Mort & Co to continue expansion.
We will circle back for a discussion after he returns.
Many would see 2025 as an ideal time to find new investor(s) in the business, with international demand for Australian grainfed beef at fever-pitch, driven in part by a US beef herd sinking to 60-year lows after drought.
Humble beginnings
From humble beginnings, founder Charlie Mort has expanded and diversified the Mort & Co business into a grainfed industry behemoth, covering multi-site lotfeeding operations, transport, fertiliser, and stockfeeds divisions. The Grassdale property purchased in 2003, six years after the company was founded, provided the foundation for the feedlot business.
As reported in Beef Central’s Top 25 Lotfeeders report, Mort & Co in 2023 ranked as the nation’s second largest lotfeeder after JBS, with a combined one-time feeding capacity of 108,000 Standard Cattle Units, turning over about 215,000 head annually and generating about 75,000t of high quality beef a year.
The feedlot assets include:
The flagship Grassdale feedlot site near Dalby on Queensland’s Darling Downs, which has undergone several expansions to its current size of 70,000 Standards Cattle Units, making it the largest yard in the nation. The yard inducts and exits between 3800 and 4500 cattle per week, using milling infrastructure capable of producing 1000t of finisher ration a day. Grassdale has a gas fired electricity plant onsite that is used to run major feedlot infrastructure including the feedmill, workshop and pump stations. Excess power not required by site is exported from this facility back into the grid. To allow the feedlot to manage grain supply more efficiently, two 17,000t pads are utilised to house feed requirements. In addition, the site has a storage capacity of 60,000t for corn and cereal silage that are grown both at Grassdale Farm and other local properties.- Pinegrove Feedlot near Millmerran on Qld’s southern Darling Downs, licensed for 21,000SCU, with built capacity of 9700, mostly used for Black Angus cattle supplying Mort’s brand programs.
- The former John Dee owned Yarranbrook feedlot near Inglewood on the Qld/NSW border, with operating capacity of 17,000 head.
Documents supporting the fund-raise suggest there is an additional 29,000 head of ‘undeveloped’ capacity in existing yards.
Back in 2016, Mort & Co toyed with the idea of publicly floating the business on the Australian Stock Exchange, but the strategy never gained traction. There is no talk of a float this time around.
A year earlier in 2015, Mort & Co extended further down the supply chain, launching its own export meat business backed by a suite of Wagyu and Angus-based commercial beef brands. The move followed some earlier exploratory work over the previous two years exporting smaller quantities of grainfed beef in a low-key manner, using a service kill done out of the Northern Cooperative Meat Co plant near Casino.
In 2018 Mort & Co announced that it would undertake a $35 million expansion at the company’s Grassdale feedlot site covering feedlot expansion, the establishment of a fertiliser plant and power generation.
In 2021 the company expanded into stockfeeds manufacture with the launch of its new division, Mort & Co Stockfeeds.
Since this item was published, Mort & Co has offered the following statement, addressed to shareholders:
Mort & Co is pleased to announce a strategic capital raising initiative designed to fuel significant growth in Australia’s lot feeding industry. This strategy will leverage the opportunity to expand our feedlot footprint, with undeveloped license capacity at Pinegrove and Yarranbrook, and the recently approved license for a new greenfield feedlot at Gogango, near Rockhampton.
These opportunities position Mort & Co for accelerated expansion and market leadership. The capital raising will provide the necessary funding for developments while simultaneously offering existing shareholders an opportunity to realise liquidity.
We are currently engaging with selected potential investors to secure this capital. We understand that this process may generate industry interest and speculation. To ensure you receive accurate information, please direct any questions to our Communications Manager, Marita Ramia (marita.ramia@mortco.com.au).
Capital raising is expected to continue over several months, potentially extending into 2026. We look forward to providing further updates on our progress with you.
We appreciate your continued support and investment in Mort & Co and are confident that this expansion will deliver great opportunity for all shareholders.