Ex-Babcock's Phil Green sells Hunter Valley station Glenrock to Chinese buyers

Glenrock, the Scone district pastoral station, has been sold for Chinese buyers.

It last traded in 2005 when bought by then Babcock & Brown managing director Phil Green and Tricom brokerage firm founder Lance Rosenberg in a syndicate that paid $23 million.

The syndicate purchased Glenrock from Compagnie de l’Occident pour la Finance et l’Industrie, a Luxembourg corporation with interests in financial management, banking, property and ­agriculture.

The Australian Financial Review columnist Joe Aston reported contracts exchanged last Friday with a Chinese buyer for "the princely sum of $45 million".

"We're sure the Foreign Investment Review Board will be taking a look at that one," he added.

According to ASIC filings, Green owns 51% of the property's holding company Glenrock Station Pty Ltd, and its directors include Claymore Capital's Anton Rosenberg (whose wife Sharron is also a shareholder) and former Babcock & Brown's Paul Platus, who now works with Green at advisory firm, Alceon.

The other shareholders are Grace Mutual chief Andrew Tyndale and property developer Alan Cardy, the second largest with 25%.

When the Upper Hunter Valley sold it was apparent investment driven Pitt Street farmers were on the rise, not seeking the tax dodge of the past but a diversification of risk as improved rural returns now compete with rival asset classes.

Previously passionate about city residential properties, those new entrants were attracted by improved farm returns that they envisaged were comparable to investments such as industrial property.