Australian family, backed by one of South Africa's richest men, buys Larrizona Station for $17 million

Australian family, backed by one of South Africa's richest men, buys Larrizona Station for $17 million

By Daniel Fitzgerald

 

An Australian family, backed by one of South Africa's richest men, has bought its sixth Northern Territory cattle property, acquiring Larrizona Station for $17 million.

 

Pierre and Luciana Langenhoven add the 70,000 hectare Sturt Plateau station to their growing list of properties, which include Kalala, Tanumbirini, Forrest Hill, Mt McMinn and Big River Stations.

 

Since mid-2018 the family has spent more than $150 million buying more than 1.1 million hectares of Top End cattle country.

 

Larrizona Station, 165 kilometres south of Katherine, was sold walk-in-walk-out with around 6,000 head of Brahman cattle.

 

ABC Rural understands the sale needed the approval of the Foreign Investment Review Board, due to the involvement of Giovanni Ravazzotti, father of Ms Langenhoven.

 

Mr Ravazzotti is one of South Africa's most successful businessmen, with an estimated worth of more than $500 million in 2020, according to Richest South Africa magazine.

 

Valuable cattle genetics
 

Larrizona Station had been developed by the Lester family, from south-west Western Australia, for the past two decades, clearing around 1,000 hectares of land and establishing a cavalcade seed and hay operation.

 

Nutrien Harcourts agent Andy Gray said the purchasers were very impressed with the cattle herd and the cropping operation.

 

"They will use the fodder that is produced from Larrizona and feed their own cattle [across other stations]," Mr Gray said.

 

"They are very impressed with the genetics of the Larrizona herd … and they will probably use some of the excess female cattle — instead of them potentially going to a [live export] boat —they will go back into their herds on other properties."

 

The property is currently sub-leased to the Lester family until the end of June 2021.