Around 25,000 annual farm sales as Harold Mitchell to sell 49% of his WA cattle empire

Around 25,000 annual farm sales as Harold Mitchell to sell 49% of his WA cattle empire
Jonathan ChancellorDecember 7, 2020

Advertising industry veteran Harold Mitchell intends to sell up to 49% of his cattle station empire in Western Australia.

The aim is to boost the business from 45,000 head to 85,000 head.

"That is probably a little too hard to do all by myself," he told the Australian Financial Review.

He has appointed KPMG and ANZ to handle the transaction.

Mitchell intends on maintaining a majority share and management.

Expectations for the sale are put at about $40 million.

The business owns 850,000 freehold hectares and leases another 560,000 hectares in Western Australia's East Kimberley.

Harold Mitchell initially bought into the cattle station business via Yougawalla Pastoral Company in 2008.

New CoreLogic RP Data analysis shows $13.72 billion buying rural properties in Australia in the 12 months to November. There were 25,000 farm sales over the year, according to the report prepared for Harcourts Landmark.

NSW had $6.27 billion in transactions of which about $210 million worth were for farms bigger than 2,000 hectares. There were 10,600 rural sales in NSW over the year.

With 1,500 farm sales, Queensland has $1.3 billion worth of sales of which $494 million were of farms bigger than 2,000 hectares.

In Victoria $3.02 billion in rural transactions was recorded, the second busiest state with 7,400 farm sales.

Western Australia achieved $1.6 billion in sales and South Australia $825 million. There were 2,600 sales in WA and 1,600 in SA.

In Tasmania there were $462 million in transactions with only one sale of a property larger than 2,000 hectares, worth $2.35 million. All up Tasmania had 1,400 rural sales.

The Northern Territory had $246 million in sales, with six of more than 2,000 hectares, worth $53 million in total across the 435 sales.

Jonathan Chancellor

Jonathan Chancellor is one of Australia's most respected property journalists, having been at the top of the game since the early 1980s. Jonathan co-founded the property industry website Property Observer and has written for national and international publications.
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