Australia

Treasurer Scott Morrison was accused of playing politics with foreign investment after he decided to stop a Chinese-led consortium buying Australia's biggest private landholder, buying S.Kidman and Co.

La Chine va acheter une marque nationale australienne, l’entreprise S. Kidman and Cо, dont les terres agricoles occupent 1 % du territoire australien.

Australians will get a chance to own a 20 per cent stake in the country's largest landholder, S. Kidman & Co, alongside large Chinese investors, after a deal was struck this week to buy the iconic cattle business for more than $370 million.

The Australian government is deferring until after an upcoming federal election a politically sensitive decision on whether to allow the sale of one of the country's biggest cattle empires, S. Kidman & Co, to a Chinese-led consortium.

The Australian operating arm of Shanghai CRED, known as Shanghai Zenith, has agreed to purchase eight properties in the Goldfields, Kimberley and Wheatbelt for around $20 million.

Australia’s largest pastoral cattle empire, S. Kidman and Co., has agreed to be sold to a Chinese-led consortium for 370.7 million Australian dollars (US$287.3 million), continuing a flurry of deals in the country’s agricultural sector. Earlier proposed deal was rejected by the government last year.

Dakang Australia and Australian Rural Capital say they want to transform S Kidman and Co into a global beef brand

Des groupes chinois ont proposé 370,7 millions de dollars australiens pour racheter les terres du plus grand propriétaire foncier d'Australie

The chairman of Australia's Foreign Investment Review Board has likened his role to walking a barbed-wire tightrope, as he attempts to balance the interests of investors and the need for capital with community concern about foreign sales.

The push to buy Australian farmland and buy into agribusinesses continues to grow, with one report showing an overall jump of $1.9 billion in proposed agricultural investment, year-on-year.

Chinese investors will spend nearly $2.5 billion in agriculture and $1.7 billion in financial assets. In 2014, those were numbers were $32 million and $51 million respectively.

Chinese fertilizer producer Hubei Xinyangfeng has secured its first allotment of farmland outside of China, after it purchased a farm in southern New South Wales, Australia.