Bayleys appointed to market Crafar farms

Bayleys appointed to market 16 farms under Crafar group receivership

Sixteen farming units scattered throughout the North Island and formerly operated by business entities involved with Alan, Beth and Frank Crafar have been placed on the market for sale.

Combined, the 16 farms employed nearly 200 staff and managers, and total almost 8000 hectares of rural land. The Crafar businesses were placed in receivership in October last year. Michael Stiassny and Brendon Gibson of KordaMentha were appointed receivers.

The farms up for sale range in size from 128 hectares to 1750 hectares. Combined, the farms are currently supporting almost 17,000 dairy cows. In addition, several of the farms are also being run as dry stock units. They are located across the Central and Lower North Island in:
• The Waikato
• Benneydale in the King Country
• Reporoa and Atiamuri
• Waverley and Hawera in Taranaki
and
• Bulls in the Manawatu.

Mr Stiassny said all farming units had been trading since being placed in receivership. He said that since October last year, the receivers had negotiated new sharemilking contracts on the dairy units, as well as overseeing significant investment in management, infrastructure and systems to ensure the farms continued operating through the next season beginning in June and therefore are to be sold as going concerns.

In March, Hong Kong Stock exchange listed Natural Dairy (NZ) Holdings announced that a related New Zealand registered company, UBNZ Assets Holdings, was negotiating to purchase the Crafar portfolio.

However, Michael Stiassny stated categorically: “We have no signed agreement with either Natural Dairy (NZ) Holdings or UBNZ Assets Holdings.”

“They have expressed an interest in the Crafar properties, but we have no formal agreements in place with either company at the present time,” Mr Stiassny added.

The portfolio is being marketed exclusively both domestically and internationally by Bayleys Real Estate through a tender process closing on June 23 – unless some or all of the farms are sold prior. Preparation of marketing material and specific farm operations data is already well underway, and is expected to be completed for potential buyer review early in May. During the interim, registrations of interest are being taken via the website www.crafarfarms.co.nz

Bayleys managing director Mike Bayley said a substantial amount of ‘behind the scenes’ work had already been undertaken to maximise marketing activity for the portfolio – deemed to be one of the most important corporate offerings to hit the rural property market this year.

“The corporate structure of the Crafar holdings means there is the potential to sell down the portfolio through any combination of units – as individual farms purchased by separate operators, in regional clusters to existing medium-sized farming entities, or to one buyer from the institutional or financial investment sectors,” Mr Bayley said.

Bayleys national country manager, Richard Graham, said the agency was throwing the full weight of its nationwide sales force behind the portfolio in acknowledgement of the scale which the Crafar farm portfolio represented.

“Being spread across such a wide geographic area throughout the North Island, we expect there will be strong ‘local’ interest from our existing extensive buyer databases in each of the territories,” Mr Graham said.

“That sentiment suggests that while the primary production sector and rural property markets are still subdued at present, there is the ability and motivation for well run farming operations to expand - underpinned by a long-term optimism in the industry as a whole,” Mr Graham added.

ENDS

© Scoop Media