Australia

Australia's foreign investment regulator no longer believes private companies in China are free of Communist Party control, and plans on subjecting Chinese takeovers and deals, such as those for farmland, to more screening on national security grounds.

One of Canada’s largest pension funds acquires majority stake in Australian company that owns 44,167 ha of arable land, as well as significant grain storage, fertilizer, agronomy, livestock, farming and logistics businesses.

One of Australia’s largest pastoral empires has sold three properties in its portfolio spanning more than 740,00ha to a Vietnamese investment group in a deal understood to be worth $135 million.

Foreign ownership of Australian agricultural land rose more than two million hectares in the past year, with investors from the island nation of the Bahamas buying up 2,201,000 hectares.

ANZ Banking Group violated its own policies and international human rights standards by financing a Cambodian sugar company that seized land from local farmers, according to a report released by an Australian government body that monitors corporate behavior overseas.

Warakirri says it is already managing discrete agricultural investments for super funds, but this new fund is being set up in response to demand from private family offices, high-net-worth and not-for-profit community

The BFB sale has raised concerns that even if local bidders are able to raise the cash required for these deals, they’re not able to compete with the vast resources and track records of international players.

A group of Riverina farmers is demanding answers from the federal government over the sale of BFB, a large diversified agribusiness in Temora, which is being sold by a US private equity investor to a Canadian pension fund.

Farm and asset management company Gunn Agri announced it has finalized the acquisition of Abingdon Downs, a 484,000-hectare breeding property in Queensland, Australia from the Keough Cattle Company, for an undisclosed sum.

ANZ Banking Group violated its own policies and international human rights standards by providing 40 million $ loan to a Cambodian sugar company that seized land from local farmers, according to a statement released by Australian government body that monitors corporate behavior overs.

Under a proposal from Australia's federal government the 15 per cent concessional rate of withholding tax for foreign investors in agricultural land will be lifted to 30 per cent by July 1 next year.

Qatar's Hassad Foods continues the strategic repositioning of its Australian agricultural investments, securing an agreement to transfer its agricultural portfolio to Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets.