Van Leeuwens take portfolio to market
The owners of the farm where the contagious cattle disease Mycoplasma bovis was first identified are selling nine of their properties.
Van Leeuwen Group Ltd owns dairy and drystock farms, including what has been described as the world’s largest robotic dairy barn.
The company is selling nine South Canterbury farms, including 3509 hectares of freehold land, extensive infrastructure, irrigation shares and a supply contract to Oceania Dairy.
Aad and Wilma van Leeuwen said it was the right time to sell, having grown their business ‘‘substantially’’ over the years.
‘‘Our aim is to be a market leader in farming systems that are sustainable with new environmental regulations, ensuring the business is well positioned to capitalise on future dairy profitability due to growing scarcity of supply.’’
Mycoplasma bovis (M bovis) was first detected on a South Canterbury farm owed by the company in 2017. A dairy farm in Southland was later identified as the source of the disease, which has no cure and spread to hundreds of farms around the country.
The nine farms for sale by Van Leeuwen Group have been cleared of M bovis for more than a year and a half.
The properties will be sold by Colliers International through an international expressions of interest campaign.
Ruth Hodges, Colliers’ national director of rural and agribusiness, said it was an incredibly rare opportunity to purchase a profitable large-scale dairy operation.
‘‘The portfolio offers strong projected returns that are expected to be particularly appealing to institutional and corporate investors.
‘‘The net yield on investment has been independently forecast at up to 7.3 per cent on an owneroperator basis and 4.24 per cent on a passive leaseback basis.
‘‘The strength of these returns, and the sheer scale of the portfolio, add up to a truly unique offering for the New Zealand market.’’
Van Leeuwen Group’s vision is to optimise its existing robotic barn farming operations as well as invest in future growth. The farms offered for sale are traditional, pasture-based dairy farms and non-core support farms that do not fit strategically with that vision.
The portfolio comprises six pastoral dairy farms and three dairy support blocks at Morven, Ikawai and Waihaorunga, with a total farm area of 3298ha. This is made up of 159ha of leased land; 1536ha of dairy support land; and 1973ha of dairy farmland, including 1708ha of milking platform.
Prospective purchasers have the option to own and operate the farms outright, or to buy the properties as a passive investment, with external operational management via a long-term leaseback.
Richard O’Sullivan, a rural and agribusiness director at Colliers, said the farms were all within 30 minutes of each other, with support blocks well located to the dairy farming hub.
‘‘The farms currently produce some 1.84 million kilograms of milksolids. Further gains in production are available to an incoming purchaser via improvements to irrigation infrastructure.’’