Macquarie Group buys Moree grain farm for $15.9 million
Macquarie Group’s new farmland fund has spent $15.9 million to buy grain farming property Kealandi near Moree in northern NSW.
The fund purchased the 4,000-hectare property from the Taylor family in an off-market transaction brokered by Peter Houlahan from stock and station agents Houlahan Young.
Market sources have suggested the indicative $4,000 per hectare was a strong sales result for Moree, which is renowned for its highly productive black soil.
The fund’s directors include former Twynam Agricultural executive chairman Christine Campbell.
Macquarie has become one of Australia’s largest landholders in recent years, held through its pastoral fund, which has aims of acquiring $1 billion worth of grazing land.
Another rural property transaction near Esperance in Western Australia, worth more than $20 million, is believed to have added to the new fund, according to The Australian Financial Review.
Macquarie declined to comment to the AFR on the transactions as it is at a sensitive stage in raising up to $700?million for the purchase of other grain-producing farms in Australia and Brazil.
