THE sale of S. Kidman & Co Ltd represents a rare opportunity for an investor to acquire a well-balanced, large scale, professionally managed portfolio of Australian cattle properties and a slice of Australian history.
Kidman was founded in 1899 by Sir Sidney Kidman and is Australia's largest private landholder.
The company operates 10 cattle stations, a bull breeding stud farm and a feedlot covering 101,411 square kilometres across regional SA, WA, NT and Qld.
Kidman owns and manages a long term average herd of 185,000 branded cattle.
The present herd includes about 151,000 branded cattle and 36,000 unbranded calves.
The company produces on average 15,000 tonnes of carcase beef equivalent a year (typically 30 per cent sold to live export and Australian saleyards and 70pc sold to Australian meatworks).
Kidman's cattle are favoured throughout Australian and international markets, with a reputation for high yield and high quality beef.
The company's independent senior management team and field staff have extensive experience in managing one of Australia's most respected and successful beef producers.
Kidman is ideally placed to benefit from the expected long term growth in global demand for beef, particularly from the Asian and the Middle Eastern markets.
The company will also benefit from a range of operational and strategic investment opportunities capable of delivering significant production and earnings growth.
The herd has an estimated value of $117 million as at March 31.
The workforce presently consists of 162 staff who are predominantly employed on a permanent, full time basis, with only 9 per cent of staff employed under part time, casual or contract arrangements.
It offers a high calibre, independent senior management team of five, with an average tenure with the company of more than 25 years.
The property portfolio comprises Australia's largest private landholding, with 101,411km2 of prime pastoral land across 12 properties, as well as a 1680m2 head office property, located in North Adelaide.
The company operates 10 cattle stations, for herd breeding, growing and fattening. The pastoral portfolio benefits from a widespread geographic footprint with a presence across four Australian states and territories, including SA, WA, Qld and the NT.
Kidman also holds the largest cattle station by area in the world, known as Anna Creek.
In addition to the cattle stations, Kidman operates a beef stud cattle property
at Rockybank, QLD and a feedlot at Tungali, SA.
The Kidman properties have been strategically acquired and developed over the last 116 years to enhance cattle productivity across the entire portfolio to deliver long term shareholder returns.
The integrated property portfolio provides flexibility in managing cattle movements between locations to maximise the use of forage resources, mitigate the impact of poor seasons and provide access to a range of end markets.
This article is an excerpt of the S.Kidman & Co Information Memorandum.
