Mortlake and Yass saleyards sold in multi-million deal

SELX Pty Ltd has sold its saleyards at Mortlake, Vic, and Yass, NSW, to Regional Livestock Exchanges for an undisclosed figure in a deal understood to be worth millions of dollars.

RLX is one of the largest saleyard owners in Australia with a portfolio of eight livestock facilities across Victoria, NSW and Queensland.

The purchase of the Western Victoria Livestock Exchange at Mortlake and SELX at Yass will be added to the existing group of RLX-owner yards, which include Ballarat, Wodonga, Carcoar, NSW, and Invervell, NSW.

Mortlake's yards cost $16 million to build and opened in 2018, while Yass yards opened in 2016, with a construction cost of $15 million.

SELX Pty Ltd shareholder Brendan Abbey confirmed the sale and said he expected a settlement to be reached within a month to six weeks.

SELX Pty Ltd is the parent company of SELX Operations and the WVLX.

"I'm just moving on," Mr Abbey said.

"They are both very successful yards and they are making money

"The price is all confidential, I would rather not divulge that."

Mr Abbey did not confirm if RLX had approached him to buy the saleyards, or if he approached the Melbourne-based company.

"Buyers of saleyards are not that thick on the ground," he said.

Mr Abbey said livestock company Outcross continue to operate at both sites.

RLX is owned by Palisade Investment Partners which owns saleyards at Tamworth, NSW, and Gracemere, Qld.

The RLX network of selling facilities handles more than 820,000 cattle and 2.3 million sheep annually.

A potential sale of Mortlake, to RLX, was touted in 2018, but nothing eventuated.

Mortlake held its first prime sale in January 2018 after a consortium headed up by Mr Abbey developed the Yass yards in 2016.

Mr Abbey, a beef producer near Yass, previously said the closure of the original Yass saleyard helped spur the consortium of six families from that area to build a much bigger replacement.

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WVLX Agents Association president Jack Hickey, JM Ellis & Co, said while he was yet to see the finer details of the sale agreement, he was feeling "open-minded and positive" about the takeover.

Mr Hickey was hopeful the sale could trigger some upgrades at the Mortlake complex as it was a high-traffic area for dairy cows.

"I think the fact that RLX are running several centres across Australia, [means] that they could probably bring more knowledge regarding the shop flooring in particular," Mr Hickey said.

"[I'm not] bagging the current situation, but the soft flooring that we're currently using is probably not quite cutting the mustard, so I'm hoping for a better alternative than just the current circumstances that we're in.

"Warrnambool closing has pushed more dairy cows into our centre, and it's just not quite holding up well enough for us, and it's a constant issue that we've been dealing with so I'm hoping RLX have got the right mix to probably make that work for us."

Mr Hickey said he did not want to speculate about the future of the nearby Camperdown saleyards in south-west Victoria, which were run by RLX.

RLX confirmed the sale but declined to comment, indicating the sale was in the process of being finalised.