Gina Rinehart plans to partner with Chinese company in bid for S. Kidman pastoral land

Pasture Land — Dairy cows eat grass in a paddock on the New South Wales south coast near the town of Nowra September 5, 2014. Reuters/David Gray

Australia’s richest woman Gina Rinehart is still on a buying mode of pastoral land after her Hancock Prospecting purchase in late July two more pastoral stations in the Northern Territory covering more than 550,000 hectares. She is reportedly planning to bid for the S. Kidman & Co pastoral empire.

The Australian reports that Rinehart would likely have Shanghai CRED Real Estate, a Chinese conglomerate, as partner in the bid. The speculation is their joint bid for the giant cattle portfolio would exceed $300 million, reports SkyNews.

Hancock is expected to control two-thirds stake in Kidman and Shanghai CRED one-third. The Chinese conglomerate, controlled by Chinese billionaire Gui Guojie, was a major part of a consortium that was twice rejected by Treasurer Scott Morrison in its bid to purchase Kidman.

Shanghai CRED is partnering with Hancock after it separated from previous corporate partner Shanghai Pengxin, which put together the first bidding consortium, and Australian Rural Capital, the third partner. It would place Hancock and Shanghai CRED in competition with the latter’s former partner Shanghai Pengxin.

Other possible competitors for Kidman are Genius Link Assets Management, a Hong Kong fund, and the family of trucking tycoon Lindsay Fox. In April, Morrison rejected the joint bid of Shanghai CRED and Shanghai Pengxin of $371 million, causing the Kidman family to delay another try to sell Australia’s biggest private landholding covering 101,000 square kilometres.

Rinehart is not only the miner who has forayed into cattle, following the weakening of the global commodities market. Like Rinehart, Andrew Forrest, Kerry Stokes and Gerry Harvey have also bought parcels of land in rural Australia.

VIDEO: Australia’s Cattle King