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Big farm sale expected in New Zealand

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Sun, 29 Jan 2012 12:15p.m.

The sale of a company owning 72 farms in the South Island is about to emerge from the largest receivership in New Zealand history (file pic)

The sale of a company owning 72 farms in the South Island is about to emerge from the largest receivership in New Zealand history (file pic)

The sale of a company owning 72 farms in the South Island is about to emerge from the largest receivership in New Zealand history.

New Zealand Dairy Holdings owns 58 dairy farms milking 43,992 cows and dry stock farms mostly in North Otago, Canterbury and the West Coast.

It has been caught up in the receivership of Timaru-based South Canterbury Finance (SCF) because the finance company held a 33.6 percent stake.

SCF collapsed in August 2010 and the government paid out $NZ1.6 billion under the Crown Deposit Guarantee Scheme to depositors.

Receivers McGrathNicol, which have the job of realising assets, were not available for comment today but NZ Newswire understands a sale of NZ Dairy Holdings is near and New Zealanders are among the buyers.

Finance Minister Bill English said he was not aware of who was buying Dairy Holdings but if overseas investment was involved the buyer would have to go through a process with the Overseas Investment Office (OIO), One News reported on Saturday.

The sale of farms to foreigners has been controversial after the government on Friday rubber-stamped the sale of 16 farms by receiver KordaMentha to Shanghai Pengxin of China. That sale, believed to be for $NZ210 million, is expected to be challenged in court by a rival New Zealand consortium next week.

First NZ Capital and Murray & Company are advising SCF's receiver on the sale of the stake in Dairy Holdings.

McGrathNicol has said the 33.6 percent shareholding owned by SCF is being marketed along with a 24.99 per cent owned by three US investors and 3.9 percent owned by Canterbury businessman Humphry Rolleston.

Another shareholder, Colin Armer, with 16.6 percent, has challenged the proposed sale in court and the position of shareholder Alan Pye has been unclear.

Indicative bids were due in May last year.

SCF's consumer, business and rural loan portfolios and stakes in Scales Corp and Helicopters NZ are among assets already sold by the receiver.

SCF was founded by Timaru-based businessman Allan Hubbard, who died last year. The modest-living elderly accountant had considerable support in South Canterbury even after the finance company collapsed.

McGrathNicol has said the SCF receivership, comprising 14 companies, is New Zealand's largest receivership, with assets pre-appointment with a book value of $NZ1.9 billion, and is one of New Zealand's more complex receiverships.

NZN

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Comments

02 Feb 2012 06:57a.m.

Fellowes wrote:

Politicians and farmers who sell their land to the highest bidder, without any thought for what their country may look like in 20 years time are traitors to their country.

30 Jan 2012 12:21p.m.

robbie wrote:

Did you know that NZ intrests (individuals, companies, trusts, pension funds, etc.) currently own in excess of $100 Billion US in overseas land - buildings and other assetts? And guess what - no one overseas is complaining about "those land stealing/grabbing Kiwis" - go figgure - uh?

30 Jan 2012 06:26a.m.

jan.. wrote:

Leasing farm land is the best opportunity and not the other way round, and this was mentioned when KEY wanted to put a 50 year leased on farmland of New Zealand to China 2011..
We must employ our own people, just look at those poor homeless people with no jobs or a home or land to call their own but live out in tents just to be evicted or imprisonment..
Homeless people can work the farms and learn not to be homeless..
This country is injured enough beyond repairable and to whom it may concern 'rethink and bloody get real'..

29 Jan 2012 06:54p.m.

Chris wrote:

I'm sorry, but I don't buy this "Our hands are tied" crap for one second. This government has had every opportunity to tighten the rules around foregn investment, and bring us into line with the rest of the civilized world. The fact that they haven't can mean only one thing: Key (no pun intended) members of our government stand to gain financially from the sale of these farms.

29 Jan 2012 04:51p.m.

Carlos wrote:

If you have to/want to $ell your farm/property, $ell to the highest 'legal' bidder !

29 Jan 2012 04:40p.m.

JR wrote:

These are privately owned farms and businesses; not owned by the government, the taxpayers, nor any other New Zealander, so get off your high horses, it's not 'our land'. Over one million hectares of land in this country is already owned by foreign companies and covered in forestry, thousands of people are employed in this industry and it returns hundreds of millions to the economy. If you think as a NZ'er you could finance and run these companies as well and competitively in the global market, go ahead and put up or shut up.

29 Jan 2012 03:07p.m.

pondering wrote:

correct me if I'm wrong but isn't this sale about 5 x larger than the last. Was the Crafar business just a way to slip it in to us. To lower our resistance to being sold off chunk by chunk> John Key made the comment several times that Kiwis would not ever be tenants in our land. I had not been concerned until he started spilling that out

29 Jan 2012 02:41p.m.

johnmillan wrote:

Simple simon, Too many people in this country are too stupid and did not fathom out too what J KEY and his party was going to do too this country before casting their vote,They just went for Key as they like his photo graphic style.Simple simon I fully agree with what you have written.

29 Jan 2012 01:58p.m.

Simple simon wrote:

Its all coming to light now the true reason why the trumped up charges against Alan Hubbard was a plot from the govt to steal assets from SCF and AH, the NZ public are too blind to see what the govt are really up too, watch this space as the govt will sell off our land to foreign hands.. The biggest fear from this is these Chinese investors will bring in immigrants to work for them for less money and take away jobs for the kiwis looking for work...mark my words...the real thieves were voted back into govt.

29 Jan 2012 12:56p.m.

Fish Face wrote:

Another one for Pengxin. We are entering the biggest recession of living history - these are going to keep on coming up for sale now. Floodgates are open and precedent is set....