This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
COTTON producer Auscott has confirmed its acquisition by a partnership between Canada’s Public Sector Pension Investment Board and the Robinson Family’s Australian Food & Fibre, in a deal expected to come in at about $500 million.
The Auscott business and its assets were put to the market in July last year. The offering included 22,000 hectares of developed irrigation land in central New South Wales, and 143,000 megalitres of water entitlements.
The transaction is by way of a 100% share sale and includes all properties as well as the ginning, warehousing, classing, and marketing businesses.
Ashley Power, chief executive officer and managing director of Auscott said the bringing together of Auscott and AFF creates “significant production, processing and marketing scale across this integrated supply chain”.
“This will support mill and brand customers in terms of a much larger, reliable, traceable supply from production through to the mill. This efficient supply chain will also support growers and the industry as Auscott continues to provide ginning and marketing services as it has done for 58 years.”
James W. Boswell, chairman and CEO of J. G. Boswell Company, the owner of Auscott, said, “We want to express our appreciation to all the people who have contributed and guided Auscott to its success. We are pleased and grateful that Auscott, and its people and their communities, will continue to grow under the leadership of AFF”.
Greg Quinn of PwC led the transaction.
Australian Food & Fibre acquired the 17,300 hectare cropping aggregation and ginning business Midkin from Auscott for $300 million in September 2019.
