S. Kidman & Co


S. Kidman & Co is one of Australia's largest beef producers with a herd of 185,000 cattle. The company has pastoral leases covering 101,000 square kilometres in the states of Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia and the Northern Territory. Kidman cattle stations produce grass-fed beef for export to Japan, the United States of America and South East Asia.

History

S. Kidman & Co was founded in 1899 by Sidney Kidman. He was one of the greatest pastoral landholders in modern history and became known by the nickname of "The Cattle King".

Operations

S. Kidman & Co is still the largest private landholder in Australia, although now on a much smaller scale. The entire landholding was placed up for sale in 2015, eleven cattle stations with a total area of over with a herd of 155,000 cattle. The total value of the company was estimated at 360 million with two Chinese companies, Genius Link Asset Management and Shanghai Pengxin, interested in acquiring the company. The sale was blocked by the Treasurer of Australia Scott Morrison who cited the national interest clause in the Foreign Investment Act. In 2015, Kidman recorded $62 million in livestock sales reflecting an increase of 10.71% on the previous year.
In October 2016, a Hancock Prospecting / Shanghai CRED joint venture lodged a bid for the company. A counter bid was later lodged by Equity Trustees.