London-listed M.P Evans, the majority owner of the North Australian Pastoral Company (NAPCO), has sold the 31,000 hectare Woodlands cattle station in southern Queensland to a subsidiary of China’s Fucheng Group for $28 million.

 

"The board determined some time ago, for strategic reasons, to sell Woodlands but significant interest in the property has developed only in recent months, further to the sharp strengthening of the cattle market," Farmonline reports an M.P. Evans statement said.

 

The sale transaction will include only the land – the cattle, plant, and all equipment will be sold separately at an estimated value in excess of $10 million. The proceeds from the land sale will be used in part to pay down NAPCO’s debt, and to fund the group’s expansion in the palm oil sector in Indonesia.

 

This sale is just the last in a string of prominent acquisitions of Australian agricultural properties by Chinese companies this year, including Dashang Group’s $45 million acquisition of Phil Green’s Glenrock Station, Hailiang Group’s $40 million purchase of farmland near St. George, and Chinese billionaire Xingfa Ma’s acquisition of the Wollogorang and Wentworth cattle stations in the Northern Territory for $47 million.

 

In 2009, M.P Evans acted to sell the Woodlands property with expectations that it could bring in excess of $30 million, with M.P Evans chairman Peter Hadsley-Chaplin saying at the time, “Our interest has been in NAPCO and that represents a more appropriate investment in the Australian agriculture sector. It is better having a holding in a company which has a spread of properties.”

 

The completion of the sale will be dependent upon gaining all regulatory approvals including clearance from the Foreign Investment Review Board.