This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
THE Packhorse Pastoral Company has acquired Ottley Station in northern NSW as its plots raising $1.5 billion over five years to buy up two million hectares of cattle assets with carbon sequestration upside.
Its first purchase in NSW, the 8,654-hectare station 54 kilometres north west of Inverell consists of three properties, Glenavon, Girraween and Ottley, and is suited to breeding and backgrounding operations.
“Ottley Station is perfectly aligned to our acquisition criteria: properties located outside the tick line, minimum 500 millimetre mean annual rainfall and importantly, a higher proportion of black clay soils that lend themselves to the regenerative practices Packhorse is implementing,” said Geoff Murrell, CEO of Pastoral, Packhorse Investments Australia Pty Limited.
The company said it also satisfied the criteria of being an outstanding opportunity for capital growth, land regeneration, carbon sequestration, environmental impact, along with consistent revenue from Packhorse’s Grass Motel cattle agistment revenue model.
Packhorse now has over $340 million of assets under management. It opened a $50 million fundraising in September after its first offering resulted in the $30 million purchase of the 8,360-hectare property Stuart’s Creek in Queensland.
Billionaire Terry Snow, whose Capital Airport Group owns Canberra Airport, is the cornerstone investor.
It is eyeing $1.5 billion of investments within five years for a portfolio of two million hectares of cattle properties over five to 10 years.
“We have a staged approach to building the Packhorse business and a very strong property pipeline. The stage one land acquisition target area spans from Taroom in Queensland to the Victorian border,” Murrell said.
“We are setting out to improve soil health on a mass-scale across Australia through our regenerative practices. We are deploying sizeable carbon sequestration programs to address climate change and we are supporting the beef industry by providing a superior environment for cattle growing and breeding conditions.”
The price of Australian carbon credit units in the growing carbon market is now over $50, which Murrell said may present a very exciting future income upside.
Packhorse aims to achieve carbon-neutral status by 2028 and has partnered with Carbon Link to ensure greater efficiency of the carbon sequestration programs, including baselining all Packhorse properties and undertaking ongoing measurement.
Its Lighthouse Station, comprising 13,600 hectares, is currently the largest soil carbon project in Australia.
Tim Samway, chair of Packhorse Pastoral Company Ltd said the company is on track to accumulate the two million hectares of properties within five to ten years.
“The welcome addition of Ottley Station to our expanding portfolio will see early investors benefit from the significant capital growth currently accelerating in rural ag-land.”
Annual total returns in excess of 12% have been delivered in the privately managed portfolio, linked to land appreciation and stable income streams from long term agistment agreements negotiated with major cattle companies and beef processors, he said.
