THE agricultural group which set up Qatar's sovereign wealth fund rural land play in Australia is looking to lease its private rural portfolio in Queensland of 100,000 hectares.
Bydand Pastoral, owned by Mike Gordon – who sold Australia's largest childcare operator to ABC Learning in 2004 – is offering the five property aggregation Noorama, near Cunnamulla on the NSW border.
Mr Gordon, estimated to be worth $320 million by the BRW Rich List, said he was devising a new model for agricultural investment in Australia, The Australian Financial Review reports.
"What we are offering here are long-term leases, as well as providing capital for the properties' development," he said. "Historically in Australia there have only ever been short-term leases and this needs to change."
Mr Gordon said that if the new model worked Bydand would "continue to add to its rural portfolio".
Major global investors such as the TIAA-CREF backed Westchester farmland funds have been buying properties in Australia and leasing them out, albeit on shorter leases.
The strategy reduces volatility of returns from their agricultural investments as it removes the risk of fluctuating commodity prices and poor weather, which are borne by the farmer.
The Noorama aggregation, which spreads 150 kilometres north to south, has a carrying capacity of 60,000 sheep and 3000 cattle.
The managing director of listed gold and copper miner DGR Global, Nick Mather, who bought more than $11 million worth of agricultural property in southern Queensland last week, said he had an interest in Bydand's holdings.
"They are magnificent properties," Mr Mather said. "It is a great credit to what he has done there. But I am unsure of why he has decided to lease them."
Elders' Dick Allpass and Brendan Devine have been appointed to lease the properties to Queensland farmers, while Meares and Associates will handle NSW.
The cost of leases per year have traditionally been about 5 per cent of a property's value.
Mr Gordon declined to comment on the value of Bydand's property or whether a percentage of on-farm revenue might be factored into an asking rent.
However, he is offering 30,000 classed ewes as part of any leasing deal.
