Gina Rinehart teams up with Chinese to bid for S Kidman & Co

The West Australian mining magnate Gina Rinehart and Chinese Real Estate company Shanghai Cred have entered into an agreement to make a takeover offer for the nation’s largest private land hold S Kidman and Co.

The joint venture company Australian Outback Beef Pty Ltd (AOB) will be owned 67 percent by Mrs Rinehart’s company Hancock Prospecting and 33 percent by Shanghai Cred.

Hancock Prospecting chairwoman Gina Rinehart told News Ltd she was pleased to have the opportunity to invest further in Australia’s cattle holdings through the acquisition of the Kidman stations and was looking forward to working with the Kidman management and staff to grow and develop the operations.

Pastoralist Sir Sidney Kidman built up one of the biggest private landholdings in Australia.

“Kidman is an iconic cattle business established more than a century ago by Sir Sidney Kidman. It is an operation founded on hard work and perseverance by an outstanding Australian, and is an important part of Australia’s pioneering and entrepreneurial history,” Mrs Rinehart said.

Austalia’s biggest meat producers, S Kidman & Co Ltd, has pastoral leases covering a 101,000sqkm across four states and territories.

The iconic Kidman landholding went on sale almost 18 months ago.

The sale is conditional of completion of the divestment of the Anna Creek station and the Peake by Kidman to other Australian grazing interests.

The proceeds from the sale of Anna Creek and the Peake will be paid to Kidman and retained in the company for the benefit of AOB, effectively reducing the “net price” being paid by AOB for the remaining Kidman portfolio to approximately $365 million.