Terra Firma’s CPC buys Bunda Station for A$15m

Consolidated Pastoral Company, the Australian beef production company owned by private equity firm Terra Firma, is buying Bunda Station, a beef farm in Northern Territory, Australia.

The acquisition is in line with plans by Terra Firma to expand and grow the business; it recently hired Barclays Capital to look into attracting equity investment from third parties.

The Bunda deal is expected to close in two weeks, according to Jacqui Cannon, chief development officer at CPC in Queensland.

CPC has an enterprise value of A$668 million (CONVERT) and owns and operates 19 cattle stations across 5.6 million hectares of land in Australia. It also owns a 50 percent stake in a feedlot joint venture in Indonesia.

It primarily sells cattle and beef into Asian consumer markets and domestic feedlots and processors, according to its website.

Terra Firma acquired the business in 2009 and Ken Warriner, the former chairman and chief executive of CPC, retained his stake.

CPC appointed a new chief executive in July; Troy Setter joined CPC from Australian Agricultural Company where he was chief operating officer. He initially joined CPC as COO earlier this year before moving into the chief executive role to replace Keith Warren.

“Troy has great skill in driving best-in-class operations in this industry, and this has been very clear in the time since he joined CPC,” wrote Terra Firma chairman and chief executive Guy Hands in a statement at the time. “He has extensive management experience in the agribusiness sector, as well as a proven ability to lead strategic change programmes. I am confident that with his background and talent he will successfully guide CPC through the next phase of its development, as we continue our transformation of this interesting business.”

CPC posted losses in the year to March 2014 compared with a profitable March 2013 statement. The company mainly blamed the losses on drought and higher operating costs in its annual report published in September.