Primary Holdings International has bought Australian Agricultural Company (AACo) cattle stations earlier this year however little is known about PHI. Though the Primary Holdings International website says it will be online in ‘early 2009’, it is yet to happen. It appears Guernsey-registered Origa Resource Partners have stumped up about half the money – presumably as reported, 49%, though it was also reported to be just 10% in August 2008.
To say they appear to be a secretive mob is an understatement. Given that Primary Holdings International/Origo Resource Partners have bought into Australian leasehold land, it would be a reasonable expectation that the Australian public have some basic information on exactly who the leasehold owners are. It appears virtually half of PHI is overseas owned – i.e. AACo has sold 50% of the sold stations to overseas residents.
About the only information provided by Primary Holdings International is a pdf of information provided by Orbcap. It includes a brief outline and a couple of very interesting graphs on the change in the percentage of arable land per person over 4 recent decades; the percentage of arable land per person in the various main regions of the world, and a Herron/Todd/White graph of price/ha/kg beef turnoff by region.
Tags: Pastoral companies