CPC divestment continues with sale of second property to Sterling Buntine

Consolidated Pastoral Company has sold another of its properties to Baldy Bay, a company owned by cattle station operator Sterling Buntine, as the divestment of its portfolio continues.

CPC said last week it had sold Comely Station, an aggregation of Comely and Mapala stations covering more than 23,000 hectares in central Queensland, on a walk-in, walk-out basis, with the sale including land and equipment but not cattle.

The value of the sale is understood to be approximately A$50 million ($35 million; €32 million).

Buntine last month purchased another property owned by CPC, the 80,000-hectare Mimong Station in north-east Queensland for approximately A$20 million.

CPC is owned by UK-based private equity firm Terra Firma, which has been seeking to sell the Australian company’s assets in their entirety since May 2018. It sold Queensland bullock-fattening station Nockatunga to Cleveland Agriculture last year in the first step of the divestment followed by the sale of three cattle stations to Vietnamese investment group Clean Agriculture and International Tourism.

CPC chief executive Troy Setter said: “Both Comely Station and Mimong Station are a good strategic fit for Sterling Buntine’s existing pastoral interests with both properties having strong feed.”

CPC’s remaining portfolio now covers 3.8 million hectares across 10 properties with a carrying capacity of almost 326,000 head of cattle.

Setter said that CPC continues to be “actively engaged” with buyers interested in its portfolio “as a whole and in parts”.

“Our geographically diverse portfolio positions the business well in the current market and season and we continue to benefit from strong demand dynamics for beef and the strong performance of our Indonesian supply chain and investments in our properties, genetics and team,” he added.

CPC declined to comment further and did not disclose any financial details of the transaction.