S. Kidman and Company is urging new parties to offer late bids for the historic pastoral business, provided they do not require Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) approval.
Ongoing delays in the Kidman sale, announced in April last year, had created an opportunity for parties who chose not to participate in the previous sale process to now express interest.
Kidman managing director, Greg Campbell, said the sale process was still "progressing with existing bidders", as was a separate process for the sale of Anna Creek Station which was annexed from the main Kidman assets to ensure it sold to Australian investors.
However, he said it was important to understand any Australian parties still had an opportunity to make a fresh bid for the business.
"As Kidman is a public unlisted company it is subject to the formal takeover process as prescribed under the Corporations Act," he said.
"The successful final bidder will issue a bidder's statement and lodge it with Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) giving public access to the offer price and all other conditions of the offer.
"At that time any other bidder has the opportunity to make a takeover offer for Kidman.
"If that offer is considered to be a "superior proposal" Kidman directors have a fiduciary duty to recommend that offer for acceptance."
Anna Creek Station is already being offered independently, to Australian investors only, in response to the Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) citing concerns over a portion of the property being located within the occasional use "green zone" of the Woomera Prohibited Area.
Even if federal Treasurer, Scott Morrison, approved a foreign buyer group's application to acquire the rest of the Kidman business, any interested party not subject to FIRB approval would still have the opportunity to lodge a counter bid.
Mr Campbell said Kidman and the EY sales management team continued to honour confidentiality agreements and had steadfastly refused to comment on the identity of buyers or the structure of their bids.
"The sale process gives equal and ample opportunity to all buyers, foreign and Australian, to fully review the business and to lodge binding bids," he said.
"Late coming Australian parties can compete for the purchase of the business.
"There is sufficient publicly available information on the cattle industry and the Kidman properties, as well as audited financial information about the business for any Australian party to be able to develop such a bid".
Late coming Australian parties had actually been advantaged by the delays in regulatory approvals because any new foreign buyers requiring FIRB approval would not be able to enter the process.
Existing bidders did not have to be excluded from the sale to enable genuine, late entry Australian parties to be granted the opportunity to make a late bid for the business.
"It is widely understood that the FIRB process and the national interest test are not in place simply to remove foreign buyer competition," Mr Campbell said.
"This is particularly important once foreign bidders have set a price using international benchmarking, and their removal would, unreasonably for them and the sellers of a business, potentially create a discounted buying opportunity for Australian parties."
Kidman and Company and EY believed they had given every opportunity for Australian parties to participate in the sales process, and that after 10 months, Mr Campbell hoped it would now be concluded in the next month or so.
"It is Kidman's intent to maintain probity and continue to work with existing and any new bidders within the existing sales and regulatory framework to reach a satisfactory outcome for the sale of this iconic business."
