Two Northern Territory cattle stations, covering about 620,000 hectares, have been bought by a Sydney-based investment company.
WealthCheck, managed by Sam Mitchell, purchased Maryfield for $38.2 million and Limbunya for $65.2 million, according to documents from the NT Land Titles Office.
AAM Investment Group, which runs agricultural operations across Australia, will take over the grazing and farming rights of the two stations and has bought their herd of about 50,000 cattle.
The walk-in, walk-out deal is estimated to be worth between $150 and $175 million.
Maryfield, located at 140,000 kilometres south-east of Darwin, is not a huge property by NT standards, but boasts one of the largest and newest feedlots in the Top End.
The previous owner, North Star Pastoral, spent millions of dollars building the 10,000-head feedlot. It is used to access both the live-export and domestic cattle markets.
Limbunya Station is a sprawling 520,000-ha breeding property in the Victoria River District.
AAM managing director and chief executive Garry Edwards said that the deal was only presented to the company in the last three weeks, with the partnership with WealthCheck to extend well beyond a 10 year lifespan. As a passive investor, they look at these assets for what they believe will represent their value into the future. AAM was particularly interested in the Maryfield feedlot, which would help the company sell cattle to different markets, according to Edwards.
He said that what the feedlot infrastructure will allow us to do is to target and more accurately deliver livestock in closer weight categories, which we hope will bring prices to the top end of the market.
In the year 2019 a 20,000 ha land clearing permit that had been granted to Maryfield Station was overturned in the NT Supreme Court after being challenged by an environmental group.
The property has a permit to clear about 4,900 ha, of which about 1,000 ha have been cleared.
As the cleared area increases, we will look at cotton production and different cropping enterprises as part of a diverse rotation, according to Mr Edwards.
AAM's NT herd will increase to over 100,000 head for the next year or two, at least until the purchase of Maryfield and Limbuyna's cattle.
The company owns Legune Station near the NT WA border and leases Manbulloo, Scott Creek and Sturt Downs stations near Katherine.
AAM was chosen to be the preferred developer of Keep Plains Agricultural Development in February, historically known as Ord Stage 3.