Lochinver purchase stalls

The Lochinver station sale has not had an easy ride through Overseas Investment Office processes. Photo / NZME.

Complicated Chinese purchase approval bogged down in ministers’ offices since Easter.

The Chinese bidders for Lochinver station are up against the wire with no signal yet from Cabinet ministers Paula Bennett and Louise Upston that their application will be approved by the time of a rapidly approaching funding deadline.

Pengxin executive Terry Lee confirmed to the Herald that if the acquisition is not approved by June 30, the company will have to seek a rollover of its facilities and could face a please explain from Chinese authorities.

The sale of Lochinver station to Chinese interests spearheaded by Shanghai Pengxin reignited concerns about farm sales to foreigners during the election campaign.

The Overseas Investment Office (OIO) referred its recommendation on the Lochinver proposal - which was made via wholly-owned Pengxin subsidiary Pure 100 Farm - to the two ministers just before Easter.

But while the OIO's recommendation has been in front of Cabinet ministers for two months - way over the normal consideration time period - they say there is no statutory timeframe in which an application for consent must be decided.

The process has been complicated by a significant rearrangement of Pengxin-related corporate structures which is also under way and which will ultimately result in Shenzhen-listed Hunan Dakang Pastoral Farming being the ownership vehicle for all the Chinese company's New Zealand farming interests.

Shanghai Pengxin, the flagship of Chinese billionaire Jiang Zhaobai, was introduced as a strategic investor into Dakang in 2013, taking up a 55 per cent stake as part of a 5 billion RMB ($1.14 billion) capital raising.

While the Lochinver application is under the Pure 100 umbrella, the ultimate aim is for Dakang to acquire it along with other Pengxin assets like the 16 former Crafar farms which were acquired in 2012 and other farms waiting OIO approval.

The upshot of this complicated process is that the OIO must ensure the other directors and shareholders in Dakang pass a good character test. Because the ownership is set to change to a new foreign owner, the accompanying application must demonstrate the new owner can add more value to the assets than a hypothetical local acquirer.

Stevenson Group chief executive Mark Franklin confirmed the deadline for the completion of the 13,843ha station sale has had to be extended "a number of times".

Franklin said it was his expectation that a decision would have been made by now. But, like other observers, he noted the OIO had a heavy workload.

Franklin reiterated that farming is not core business for Stevenson. The company wanted to complete the sale to free up capital to reinvest in other businesses such as expanding its quarry in Drury and investing in a West Coast coal mine.

The application has been in the government pipeline since July 2014. But the OIO is struggling to keep pace with the level of applications.

The OIO is so grossly under-resourced it has become an embarrassment for New Zealand, Chapman Tripp M&A specialist John Strowger recently noted. The 2014 Briefing to the Incoming Minister (Bennett) noted that timing of decisions could have personal implications for various applicants, including funding arrangements.

Pengxin International chief executive Gary Romano strongly promoted the benefits of Chinese investment at a recent business awards ceremony saying they extended beyond the farmgate and into New Zealand.

Milk NZ Holdings - which is controlled by Pengxin - was named supreme winner at the 2015 HSBC NZCTA New Zealand China Business Awards replicating its earlier success at the BNZ NZ China Business Awards.

He said Pengxin had a long-term strategy to build a vertically integrated business and the Lochinver acquisition was a part of that.