This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
AUSTRALIAN-British billionaire hedge fund manager Lord Michael Hintze has sold his northern NSW livestock farm to Origin Energy for a figure believed to be well above the $35 million price tag.
Origin Energy is looking to utilise the farmland at the 7,489-hectare Warrane alongside a potential wind farm and other renewable projects, according to The Weekly Times. A clearing permit has been granted for more than 2,000 hectares, 325 hectares of which has been completed, and discussions had been had about renewable project on the property.
Lord Hintze bought Warrane, 18 kilometres north west of Armidale in the NSW New England region, in 2007 for $22 million in a leaseback deal. His MH Premium Farms took over operations in 2014.
Warrane is rated to carry 58,000 dry sheep equivalent and in recent years was producing beef cattle, prime lambs and merino wool.
Improvements include a circa-1910 five-bedroom homestead, a new manager’s residence, and staff accommodation.
The founder of hedge fund CQS, Lord Hintze, now owns a portfolio of 40 farms across 17 aggregations, totalling about 70,000 hectares along the eastern mainland states.
A year ago, Hintze netted about $40 million from the sale of grazing and cropping properties in NSW, which followed his $100 million spend on buying the South Callandoon mixed farming aggregation near Goondiwindi, on the border of NSW and Queensland.
LAWD’s Danny Thomas and Col Medway managed the sale of Warrane listing.