Allied Farmers confirms sale of Five Mile

Allied Farmers confirms unconditional sale of Five Mile

July 15 (BusinessDesk) - Allied Farmers Ltd. confirmed the unconditional sale of the second stage of Queenstown’s undeveloped Five Mile block which the company has previously indicated would sell for more than its $23.2 million valuation.

The 23.3 hectare site adjacent to Queenstown Airport is being sold to New Zealand interest so the deal doesn’t require Overseas Investment Office approval. Settlement is scheduled for mid November.

The transaction has to cover a prior-ranking mortgage over the land to Uno Finance, formerly known as Lockwood Finance, which had been arranged by previous owner Hanover Finance.

“Given the current state of the property market, especially in large scale developments like this, we are very pleased to achieve a price that is nearing the upper end of the valuation scale,” said Allied managing director Rob Alloway. “We’ve always said that, given time, we could realise value from the former Hanover assets for our shareholders and indeed this has proved to be the case with Five Mile.”

Allied didn’t identify the buyer, other than to say it was “familiar with the Queenstown District and had previously done development in the region.”

“They came late to this negotiation with a pretty compelling offer and we are very pleased to be able to have concluded such a significant deal,” Alloway said.

Shares of Allied last traded at 3.4 cents and have slumped 70% this year after the company was forced to write down the value of loans purchase from Hanover and United Finance by about two thirds.

(BusinessDesk)

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