Canadian fund buys McCamley stations

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Sir Graham McCamley's Oakleigh and Stoodleigh properties north of Rockhampton.
Financial Review | 20 April 2015

Canadian fund buys McCamley stations

by MATTHEW CRANSTON

One of Canada's largest pension funds, the Public Sector Pension Investment Board, has made its first rural land purchase in Australia through central Queensland's Hewitt Cattle Company.

The fund, which invests money for the pension plans of the Canadian Public Service and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, snapped up pastoral legend Sir Graham McCamley's Oakleigh and Stoodleigh properties north of Rockhampton.

The transaction is understood to be in the vicinity of about $13 million.

Hewitt Cattle Company's managing director Michael Hewitt said a deal had been clinched. "We can confirm a transaction is proceeding," Mr Hewitt said, "However the transaction is still subject to approval from the Foreign Investment Review Board."

Sir Graham's 13,650-hectare Oakleigh and Stoodleigh aggregation was passed in for $8.15 million at an auction in November. The organically accredited properties were offered on a walk-in, walk-out basis with 5000 head of cattle, plant and equipment through CBRE's Geoff Warriner, Chris Holgar and Danny Thomas who negotiated the deal.

The properties cover six freehold titles and have 15 main paddocks and high-quality structural improvements. Hewitt Cattle, based in Emerald, operates more than 200,000 hectares of land and around 30,000 head of cattle.

In March The Australian Financial Review revealed that the Canadian pension fund had bought into the Hewitt Cattle Company in a move that has sent ripples through Australia's cattle industry which, although burdened by big debt and droughts, has very strong growth prospects with surging beef prices, low supply, growing demand and a sliding Australian dollar.

The PSP fund, which had $C93.7 billion ($96.15 billion) of assets under management at the end of fiscal 2014, took a multimillion-dollar stake in Hewitt Cattle but its plans for further purchases are not yet clear. PSP's investment is the latest offshore public sector fund to have invested in cattle stations, with Dutch pension fund Stichting Pensioenfonds ABP having a major stake in Macquarie Group's Paraway Pastoral.

The fund's investment comes as new rules on foreign investment were introduced last month. The fund is not the first Canadian institution to gain exposure to Australian farmland with Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec also having invested money here. Last year, while in Canada, Prime Minister Tony Abbott mounted a push for Canadian pension funds and other businesses to invest more in Australia.

"I hope that my visit, and the visit of the accompanying trade delegation, will encourage more Canadian businesses, more cashed-up Canadian pension funds that are looking for safe and stable place to invest their members' money; I hope that more of them will look to Australia," Mr Abbott said.

Former Graincorp chief executive and former Consolidated Pastoral chief executive Mark Irwin has been advising the Hewitt Cattle Company.
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