LOGISTICS legend Chris Corrigan has been quietly working on one of the biggest listed agricultural land and water plays in Australia's history.
The play started in late 2013 and the intention is to build up a rural land and water company that will have a market capitalisation of well over $500 million.
With such scale it is expected that the listed entity's share price will better reflect the value of its net tangible assets - something that agricultural companies in Australia have seldom been able to achieve.
Mr Corrigan plays down his growing interest in farmland investments saying he has a holding in only two main companies.
But his web of influence and interest in the space can be linked to about 10 agricultural companies and is rapidly expanding.
His main interest is a 15.3 per cent stake in the listed group Webster which is the entity that has acquired - or is in the midst of acquiring - 220,000 hectares of farmland and 150,000 megalitres of water entitlements from southern Queensland to the NSW Riverina, in just six months.
Coincidentally, Mr Corrigan is also chairman of and investor in Kaplan Equity, which runs a fund that has purchased substantial stakes in listed agricultural groups such as the Australian Agricultural Company, Ruralco Holdings and Namoi Cotton Co-Operative. Mr Corrigan, however, does not get involved with the day-to-day portfolio decisions nor investment recommendations for that fund.
His reach also extends to companies including Qube Holdings, which has recently set up Quattro Grain, and the former listed PrimeAg Australia known now as Bengerang, which alongside listed farmland and water rights holder Tandou is subject to a takeover bid from Webster.
"As fulsome documents, including independent expert reports setting out Webster's reasons for the intended transactions, are at a late stage of review by both ASIC and ASX, I feel it would not be appropriate for me to give a personal perspective at this point in time," Mr Corrigan told The Australian Financial Review.
Mr Corrigan may well rue the overly transparent nature of the ASX disclosure requirements which can offer the market an insight to his complex corporate agriculture play. His form during the Australian waterfront dispute in 1998 also shows his skill in tactically executing on strategy and it is that which has the agricultural sector excited.
Crucial role
While many think Mr Corrigan is the ringmaster in this play, there is in fact a media-shy former plastic surgeon turned corporate farmer called David Robinson who is also playing an equally crucial role.
As the former chairman of Webster, Mr Robinson briefly met Mr Corrigan when he became an investor in that company in 2008.
About 18 months ago the pair met again and Mr Robinson convinced Mr Corrigan to team up and buy out the rump of the listed PrimeAg Australia - a rural land company that listed in 2007 but never traded above its true value for any length of time.
Mr Corrigan took 25pc of the leftover company now known as Bengerang. Mr Robinson, through his company Australian Food & Fibre (AFF), took 50.5pc. Late last year Bengerang made its first purchase snapping up the Buster family's Darling Farms property in Bourke, NSW, for less than $40 million.
AFF has already attracted significant firepower with close ties to Westchester, the entity that has purchased close to $1 billion worth of Australian rural land with the backing of United States financial services giant TIAA-CREF. AFF now leases about $120 million worth of rural land from the US giant.
It also played a significant part in Webster's purchase of AgReserves Australia.
Mr Robinson also maintains a high level of privacy around what the very profitable AFF is aiming to achieve in association with Mr Corrigan.
"I have been keen on listed agriculture," Mr Robinson said, "I like the idea of a $500 million agricultural company with diversity, adequate earnings and a water portfolio which should attract a wider range of investors."
