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Owners of Australian cattle empire refuse to split up property for sale

Xinhua, May 3, 2016 Adjust font size:

The owners of S. Kidman and Co, Australia's largest private landing holding, have refused to split up their vast cattle empire after the Federal government rejected the latest Chinese-backed bid.

Late last week, Treasurer Scott Morrison rejected a second bid for the cattle company made by Dakang consortium, which is 80-percent Chinese-owned, as he said deal still did not satisfy Australia's "national interest."

Following the decision, the directors of S. Kidman and Co, family-owned in South Australia since its inception in 1899, met on Monday and have resolved to re-offer its 77,000 square-km land package in full.

News Corp has reported that Dakang consortium - 41 percent controlled by Shanghai Pengxin, 39 percent by Shanghai CRED Real Estate and 20 percent by local agricultural company Australian Rural Capital - will withdraw its 284.5 billion-U.S.-dollar binding bid later on Tuesday.

The scrapping of the deal paves the way for Australian businesses or another diluted Chinese-backed consortium to re-submit proposals for Kidman's purchase. It will be the third time in 12 months that the company has been up for sale.

It is likely the third tender process will close well after the 2016 Federal Election, expected to be called for July 2, removing the politically-charged sale from the policy agenda.

Kidman executives decided against breaking up its nine stations across Queensland, South Australia and the Northern Territory - making up 1.9 percent of Australia's total agricultural land mass - in order to protect its sale price, as well as its 160-strong workforce.

After Shanghai Pengxin's first bid was rejected for failing the Foreign Investment Review Board's "national interest" test in November last year, Kidman was forced to offload its most prized asset.

Kidman's 24,000 square-km Anna Creek property, the largest cattle station in the world located within Australia's secretive Woomera Rocket Range, was sold to a neighboring owner in a separate deal last month. Endit