Chinese billionaire exits WA cattle station empire in $300m deal

Mr Hui has dual Australian-Chinese citizenship and, notwithstanding his low profile in the local market, he was ranked the 19th richest Australian on the 2023 Financial Review Rich List with a $4.9 billion fortune.

But the billionaire is also grappling with heavy financial challenges at Hong Kong-listed Shimao Group, a Chinese development company, where he is the majority owner with almost two-thirds of the stock. Shimao’s market value has plummeted over the past year after it defaulted on its debt obligations.

On the buy side is the Alberta Investment Management Corporation, or AIMCo, which has $175 billion in assets under management globally on behalf of a group of pension and government funds in the Canadian province of Alberta.

It has teamed up with New Agriculture, which is an arm of Sydney-based New Forests, which has $11 billion under management globally.

“The Kimberley Cattle Portfolio – AIMCo’s first investment in this sector – is an established and well-managed asset that provides important diversification in our client portfolios,” said Ben Hawkins, AIMCo’s executive managing director and head of infrastructure and renewables resources.

New Agriculture was set up more than a year ago to manage the Lawson Grains aggregation after it was acquired by New Forests and AIMCo, with plans to build a global portfolio of agriculture assets, starting in Australia and New Zealand.

It is led by Bruce King, the former chief executive of the federal government’s Regional Investment Corporation.

“Our intention is to apply the same level of rigour and commitment to sustainability that New Forests has in the forestry space to the agriculture sector,” he said.

The Kimberley portfolio runs a herd of 50,000 breeders on a combination of pastoral leases and sub-leases, within a radius of 350 kilometres in the state’s north.

Managed by Haydn and Jane Sale – who will remain as part of the deal – the aggregation of properties has allowed for efficiencies in production through investment in watering points, fencing and roads.

The deal was brokered by LAWD’s Danny Thomas. It is a boost for the farmland market, where returns broadly have slumped this year as weaker commodity prices and higher interest rates eat into profitability.

Cattle prices have tumbled as much as 70 per cent during the past year due to a supply glut. But there are signs that the worst may be over for cattle and sheep producers as meat prices bounced higher following rain and more clarity for producers on what stock levels they can carry.

Mr Hui, who studied for an MBA at the University of South Australia in the 1990s, bought into the beef industry six years ago through his Archstone Investment Group. He paid about $70 million for advertising doyen Harold Mitchell’s 1.4 million hectare WA portfolio, which included the Bulka, Yougawalla and Margaret River stations, along with about 45,000 head of cattle.

Mr Hui added another 1 million hectares to his growing cattle empire when he bought the Argyle Cattle Company, which comprises Beefwood Park, Shamrock, Moola Bulla, and Mount Amhurst Stations.