Property

Terra Firma pitches CPC to domestic investors, as part of FIRB process

Jon Condon 05/03/2018

UK-based private equity firm Terra Firma has started its public awareness campaign surrounding the intended sale of its Consolidated Pastoral Co grazing business in Australia, in compliance with the Federal Government’s controversial new FIRB laws.

The new FIRB rules announced by Treasurer Scott Morrison in January mean vendors seeking ‘top dollar’ for land assets likely to attract foreign competition now need to publicly advertise properties for 30 days before any deal with an offshore investor is done.

As described in this earlier article, the move is designed to give local Australian investors fair opportunity to bid on property assets before they are sold to foreign interests.

Prominent advertisements have appeared in the national financial press in recent days for the CPC portfolio, and a ‘rash’ of other large agricultural assets likely to attract interest from offshore buyers, including those held by Twynam Pastoral, and Eastern Agriculture (cotton).

Terra Firma, which bought CPC in 2009, has decided to sell its Australian cattle and Indonesian feedlot operations, covering 16 properties and about 400,000 head of cattle. The business is being offered as a whole or in parts through property agency Knight Frank and investment banking giant Goldman Sachs.

With an asset base worth about $880 million, CPC is Australia’s largest privately-owned cattle enterprise, and the world’s second largest cattle producer. It also has an 80 percent stake in two feedlots in the Indonesian province of Sumatra, with combined capacity to feed 36,000 head.

Last year CPC exported about 25,500 live cattle to Indonesia. The company last financial year reported about $50 million in pre-tax earnings.

A recent marketing roadshow highlighted Terra Firma’s nine-year ownership of the CPC business and its preparedness to consider strategic options, given the current strong demand for high quality pastoral assets and proximity to growing markets in Asia.

Beef Central wrote about the impending sale offering of CPC in this article published back in late January.

Beef Central’s property writer Linda Rowley filed this report last Wednesday over the FIRB domestic disclosure issue, and will follow-up with part-two of the series in her weekly property review this week.

Click the link below to view a recently produced CPC corporate video:

 

 

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Comments

  1. John Hays, 22/03/2018

    It’s about time our government buys these big places back like CPC, Kidman etc and ballot them out like they used too. I’m not saying for a minute to give these places to ballot winners free of charge but to pay the government back. A lot of these properties could easily sustain three or four or more young Australian families and be very profitable businesses. I’m sure Sir Sidney Kidman would of preferred this. If we keep going the way we are I’d hate to know who in a decade or so will own the best country in the world.

  2. Michael J. Vail, 05/03/2018

    If AAco is only valued by the market at a market capitalisation of around $675.0-million, how can CPC by any measure, be worth over $1.0-billion … albeit a strategic stake, CPC operates in riskier markets offshore … this will be an interesting roadshow …

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