Australian Financial Review | Apr 6, 2025
Chris Corrigan leads investors in $500m farm sale to Canadian fund
Chris Corrigan leads investors in $500m farm sale to Canadian fund
by Nick Lenaghan
One-time waterfront warrior Chris Corrigan blames federal Labor’s water buybacks for his decision to quit a vast cotton, cropping and nuts aggregation in the NSW Riverina, his largest stake in Australian agriculture.
In a complex deal worth about $500 million overall, a venture backed by Canada’s PSP Investments has bought out its co-investors including Corrigan in the Kooba aggregation, which comprises 30,000 hectares with cotton, crops and livestock and about 1400 hectares of almond orchards.
Corrigan said he made up his mind to exit his stake in Kooba – once part of the portfolio of ASX-listed Webster before it was delisted – several months ago because the federal government’s water buyback scheme was frustrating growth in the agricultural sector.
“Enough’s enough. Labor and the Greens are hell-bent on destroying Australian agriculture,” he told The Australian Financial Review from Europe, where he mostly resides in Switzerland.
“I decided there are better things to do with your money. You’re fighting constantly against the people who want to destroy Australia’s agricultural capacity. Maybe bigger fish can do it, but for me it’s tiring to fight uphill against those forces.”
The transaction represents the exit by Corrigan and co-investor David Fitzsimons from their combined 50.1 per cent holding in Kooba, a large holding near Griffith that once formed the nucleus of the ASX-listed Webster portfolio. PSP took Webster private in an $850 million deal in 2019, triggering a break-up of its agribusiness assets that left Corrigan and David Fitzsimons – who had both been key investors in Webster – with the majority stake in a new company called KoobaCo.
At the time, KoobaCo’s portfolio was valued at $277 million.
Born in regional NSW, the prominent businessman is best known for his role in the 1998 waterfront dispute. Three decades later it is Labor’s decision to restore environmental flows in the Murray-Darling Basin that has triggered Corrigan’s ire.
“It’s the insanity of buying back the water. They’re buying back the water under the guise of restoring our rivers, but they don’t know what they’re restoring them to. It’s ridiculous, there’s no logic to it.
“This water comes from man-made dams, dams that were built last century, and now we’re deciding we’ve got to flush it down the river. That’s what’s insane about it.”
Farmers have slammed the buyback scheme, warning it will drive up water prices and raise the cost of food. Corrigan said that while Kooba itself was adequately resourced, he worried the scheme would hamper the growth of agriculture more generally as water prices rose.
That buyback policy was a greater threat to the Australian agriculture than the imposition of a flat 10 per cent tariff on Australian exports – including beef – by US President Donald Trump last week, he said.
“That’s not the issue with agriculture. The issue with agriculture is that the Greens and the teals and Labor basically want to destroy it and flush the water down the river. It’s a bit hard to understand for anyone with a commercial brain.
“If Australia applies its mind, it’s got fantastic opportunity in agricultural pursuits, but you’ve got to have an interest in developing the business rather than destroying it.”
After the Kooba exit, Corrigan’s only investment in Australian agriculture is a small interest in ASX-listed olive oil producer Cobram Estate. He does not plan to reinvest the proceeds from the Kooba transaction back into the local market. “It won’t be in Australia,” he said.
Driving the buy-out of Kooba is Australian Food & Fibre, a separate joint venture that PSP formed in 2017 with the Robinson family. Under the deal, AFF buys all of Kooba from its existing shareholders – PSP itself holds 49.9 per cent – and then splits its assets with another PSP-controlled agribusiness, Stahmann Webster.
“Australian Food & Fibre has reached an agreement to acquire Kooba from its existing shareholders,” an AFF spokesman said.
“As employees have been informed, it is AFF’s intention to transfer Kooba’s almond and apiary operations to tree nut producer Stahmann Webster, while the cotton, cropping and livestock operations will remain with AFF.
“Kooba’s assets represent a natural fit with AFF and Stahmann Webster, giving both the cotton and almond operations the opportunity to continue to thrive under specialist ownership.”
Three years ago, another component of Kooba holdings was split out and sold off to the Paterson family for $63 million. Kooba Ag Hay Aggregation is an irrigated cotton operation southwest of Hay in NSW.
The latest transaction in the Riverina represents another boost for the Canadian pension fund’s ambitions in Australia, where its portfolio of farmland and agribusiness interests has climbed to about $8 billion.
Through its AFF venture, PSP bought cotton producer Auscott three years ago, taking on 22,000 hectares of developed irrigation land in central NSW and 143,000 megalitres of water entitlements, for which price expectations were in excess of $500 million when it was taken to market.
PSP’s agricultural interests extend to Aurora Dairies in Gippsland, one of the country’s largest milk producers and poultry, spending about $180 million last year to acquire majority ownership of egg farm operator Ellerslie Free Range Farms.
One-time waterfront warrior Chris Corrigan blames federal Labor’s water buybacks for his decision to quit a vast cotton, cropping and nuts aggregation in the NSW Riverina, his largest stake in Australian agriculture.
In a complex deal worth about $500 million overall, a venture backed by Canada’s PSP Investments has bought out its co-investors including Corrigan in the Kooba aggregation, which comprises 30,000 hectares with cotton, crops and livestock and about 1400 hectares of almond orchards.
Corrigan said he made up his mind to exit his stake in Kooba – once part of the portfolio of ASX-listed Webster before it was delisted – several months ago because the federal government’s water buyback scheme was frustrating growth in the agricultural sector.
“Enough’s enough. Labor and the Greens are hell-bent on destroying Australian agriculture,” he told The Australian Financial Review from Europe, where he mostly resides in Switzerland.
“I decided there are better things to do with your money. You’re fighting constantly against the people who want to destroy Australia’s agricultural capacity. Maybe bigger fish can do it, but for me it’s tiring to fight uphill against those forces.”
The transaction represents the exit by Corrigan and co-investor David Fitzsimons from their combined 50.1 per cent holding in Kooba, a large holding near Griffith that once formed the nucleus of the ASX-listed Webster portfolio. PSP took Webster private in an $850 million deal in 2019, triggering a break-up of its agribusiness assets that left Corrigan and David Fitzsimons – who had both been key investors in Webster – with the majority stake in a new company called KoobaCo.
At the time, KoobaCo’s portfolio was valued at $277 million.
Born in regional NSW, the prominent businessman is best known for his role in the 1998 waterfront dispute. Three decades later it is Labor’s decision to restore environmental flows in the Murray-Darling Basin that has triggered Corrigan’s ire.
“It’s the insanity of buying back the water. They’re buying back the water under the guise of restoring our rivers, but they don’t know what they’re restoring them to. It’s ridiculous, there’s no logic to it.
“This water comes from man-made dams, dams that were built last century, and now we’re deciding we’ve got to flush it down the river. That’s what’s insane about it.”
Farmers have slammed the buyback scheme, warning it will drive up water prices and raise the cost of food. Corrigan said that while Kooba itself was adequately resourced, he worried the scheme would hamper the growth of agriculture more generally as water prices rose.
That buyback policy was a greater threat to the Australian agriculture than the imposition of a flat 10 per cent tariff on Australian exports – including beef – by US President Donald Trump last week, he said.
“That’s not the issue with agriculture. The issue with agriculture is that the Greens and the teals and Labor basically want to destroy it and flush the water down the river. It’s a bit hard to understand for anyone with a commercial brain.
“If Australia applies its mind, it’s got fantastic opportunity in agricultural pursuits, but you’ve got to have an interest in developing the business rather than destroying it.”
After the Kooba exit, Corrigan’s only investment in Australian agriculture is a small interest in ASX-listed olive oil producer Cobram Estate. He does not plan to reinvest the proceeds from the Kooba transaction back into the local market. “It won’t be in Australia,” he said.
Driving the buy-out of Kooba is Australian Food & Fibre, a separate joint venture that PSP formed in 2017 with the Robinson family. Under the deal, AFF buys all of Kooba from its existing shareholders – PSP itself holds 49.9 per cent – and then splits its assets with another PSP-controlled agribusiness, Stahmann Webster.
“Australian Food & Fibre has reached an agreement to acquire Kooba from its existing shareholders,” an AFF spokesman said.
“As employees have been informed, it is AFF’s intention to transfer Kooba’s almond and apiary operations to tree nut producer Stahmann Webster, while the cotton, cropping and livestock operations will remain with AFF.
“Kooba’s assets represent a natural fit with AFF and Stahmann Webster, giving both the cotton and almond operations the opportunity to continue to thrive under specialist ownership.”
Three years ago, another component of Kooba holdings was split out and sold off to the Paterson family for $63 million. Kooba Ag Hay Aggregation is an irrigated cotton operation southwest of Hay in NSW.
The latest transaction in the Riverina represents another boost for the Canadian pension fund’s ambitions in Australia, where its portfolio of farmland and agribusiness interests has climbed to about $8 billion.
Through its AFF venture, PSP bought cotton producer Auscott three years ago, taking on 22,000 hectares of developed irrigation land in central NSW and 143,000 megalitres of water entitlements, for which price expectations were in excess of $500 million when it was taken to market.
PSP’s agricultural interests extend to Aurora Dairies in Gippsland, one of the country’s largest milk producers and poultry, spending about $180 million last year to acquire majority ownership of egg farm operator Ellerslie Free Range Farms.
