Paraway Pastoral carries beef, sheep and crop farms on 28 pastoral businesses across 4.4 million hectares.The Australian | 26 January 2026Macquarie Group fires the starting gun on $3bn Paraway Pastoral sale
One of the most sought after agricultural companies is now up for grabs and is attracting plenty of overseas interest.
by Bridget Carter
As investment banking activity gets back into full flight following the Australia Day holiday, one of the deals front of mind will be Paraway Pastoral’s $3bn sale.
And the process is expected to attract buyers from all corners of the globe as beef continues to command top dollar.
DataRoom understands that after promotional material for the sale was sent out in January, information memorandum documents providing more details on the business are due out to buyers in the second half of February, with first round bids likely due in March.
Paraway Pastoral is one of Australia’s most valuable agricultural companies and a rare opportunity for buyers to gain a deeper foothold into the local industry.
It is owned by Macquarie Group and Dutch fund APG.
Macquarie’s agriculture arm also includes the iconic Australian agricultural business Cubbie Station among the assets in the portfolio and also has assets in South America.
But Paraway is considered the jewel in the crown with its valuable land holdings.
It carries beef, sheep and crop farms on 28 pastoral businesses across 4.4 million hectares.
Macquarie has an open-ended fund structure with investors that have remained with the business for 13 years, and it has exceeded all its hurdles.
An obvious contender for the sale will be Consolidated Pastoral Company, which is one of Australia’s largest cattle producers, and its former shareholder, Terra Firma, a British private equity firm.
CPC is on the acquisition path, buying Beetaloo Station from Brett Blundy and the Armstrong family in December for close to $315m.
US-based institutional investors are believed to be keen buyers, as are institutional investors from continental Europe and high net worth investors.
Canadian pension funds will also likely be in the mix, while there is believed to have been interest from funds out of the Middle East, with Abu Dhabi Investment Authority frequently a candidate for buying Australia’s prized assets.
Although the business is on its books at $2.5bn, that number is now considered out of date.
Paraway Pastoral has a history of taking a conservative approach to asset values, marking them to market, and there’s thought to be confidence it will sell well above that number, with bidders needing to think about a number around the $3bn mark.
It’s worth remembering Paraway Pastoral experienced a price uplift to its property book value of 25 to 35 per cent when it offloaded Walhallow cattle station to retail billionaire Brett Blundy for close to $250m in 2015.
The three components of the offer include water, livestock and land, with the latter accounting for most of the value.
The company makes $115m in cash earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation for 2025.
The company managed to avoid major impacts from the north Queensland floods in recent weeks, at a time that other cattle companies have had to wrestle with major stock losses.
