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Australian pastoral empire being sold
Australia’s largest private landholder, S Kidman & Co, is being sold to a consortium with advice from a boutique, a national and a global.
Lara Bullock
Firms: HWL Ebsworth (S Kidman & Co Limited); Ashurst (Dakang Australia Holdings Pty Ltd); Broadley Rees Hogan (Australian Rural Capital Ltd)
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Deal: A consortium comprising Dakang Australia and Australian Rural Capital is acquiring S Kidman & Co Limited.
Value: $370 million
Area: M&A
Key players: The HWL Ebsworth team was led by partner Jamie Restas (pictured) out of the firm's Adelaide office, with assistance from partner Nick Karagiannis and senior associate Shane Lloyd.
The Ashurst team was led by corporate partner Kylie Lane in Melbourne and Michael Sheng in Shanghai, with assistance from senior associates Eliza Blandford and Andrew Gay. Banking partner Ken Nguyen led the Ashurst team advising on the acquisition financing facility.
Deal significance: S Kidman & Co Limited (Kidman) was founded in 1899 and is Australia’s largest private landholder and fifth largest beef cattle producer.
Kidman operates 10 cattle stations, a bull breeding stud farm and feedlot covering 101,000 square kilometres across regional South Australia, Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory.
Following an international sale process that commenced in April 2015, Kidman has entered into a bid implementation agreement with a consortium comprising Dakang Australia Holdings Pty Ltd and ASX-listed Australian Rural Capital Ltd.
The takeover offers to be made are conditional on a number of terms including obtaining approval of the Federal Treasurer under the Foreign Acquisitions and Takeovers Act, according to a release from HWL Ebsworth.
