August 31, 2015

China's PengXin Group bids for 2 Aussie firms' cattle stations

China's PengXin Group could be Australia's largest farmland owner if negotiations to acquire two cattle properties in that country become successful, reports said.

The Australian Financial Review reported that the Chinese conglomerate was bidding separately for the cattle stations owned by Consolidated Pastoral Co. and S. Kidman & Co., which is Australia's biggest farmland owner.  The two Australian companies' properties, according to the business paper's online site, are worth a total of over A$1 billion (US$720 million). 

Consolidated Pastoral Co. owns cattle stations in northern and western Australia, while Kidman & Co., which is one of Australia's largest beef producers has a herd of about 185,000 cattle in southern Australia.

Both companies' properties have a total of 555,000 head of cattle and could approximate that of Australia's biggest beef producer, the Australian Agricultural Company.

The Australian paper said that through acquisitions three years ago, PengXin became New Zealand's third-biggest dairy producer.