OIO blocks dairy farm sale
A Canadian bid to buy more than 4500 hectares of South Island farmland has been rejected.
The Overseas Investment Office (OIO) ruled that Mercury Agriculture LP, which is 92 per cent owned by Canadian interests, could not buy the land in South Canterbury and Otago because it was ‘‘not in New Zealand’s interests’’.
Mercury Agriculture had applied to buy up to a 68.3 per cent interest in Rangitata Dairies Limited Partnership and Rangitata GP Ltd, which owns close to 2000ha at Rangitata near Geraldine, 212ha near Temuka, 494ha near Ashburton and 816ha near Cromwell.
All the land was classified as sensitive under the Overseas Investment Act because it was farmland. Such land is identified as potentially offering substantial and identifiable benefits to New Zealand.
The price offered was withheld. According to the OIO decision, Land Information Minister Eugenie Sage and Associate Finance Minister David Clark needed to be satisfied the investment would result in substantial and identifiable benefit to New Zealand. Neither minister had been satisfied the investment met those requirements, it said.
Mercury Agriculture is an investment vehicle for Fiera
Comox Partners, which established a fund to buy agricultural land and rural producing assets in New Zealand, Australia, Canada and the United States, the OIO said.
Rangitata Dairies owns eight dairy farms in South Canterbury, a dairy support farm in Otago and leased farmland used as dairy support in Canterbury.
It planned to use proceeds from the sale to convert 111ha of farmland into an orchard, plant permanent crops and install irrigation and in-shed feeding on some of the dairy farms.
Parker announced last month a new national interest test would apply to sales of the most sensitive and high-risk assets to overseas buyers. A bill would be introduced early next year, he said.