Clayton Utz helps complete $130m cross-border investment into Australia

Clayton Utz has helped ensure the success of a major cross-border investment into Australia.

The top-tier firm advised Vietnamese-owned Clean Agriculture and International Tourism (CAIT) on its acquisition of three cattle stations from private cattle producer Consolidated Pastoral Company.

The Clayton Utz team was headed by partner Margie Michaels, who was supported by special counsel Scott Girdler, senior associate Tatiane Kelly, and lawyer Lauren Evans.

The $130m acquisition is the largest investment in Australia by a Vietnamese business, Clayton Utz said. The deal was announced in January and was settled earlier this month.

Clayton Utz said that the acquisition is “an example of strong foreign appetite for premium agricultural assets with long-term growth potential.”

The deal involves the Auvergne Station and Newry Station in the Victoria River district and located southwest of Darwin in the Northern Territory. It also involved the Argyle Downs Station in the East Kimberly region of Western Australia.

All in all, the stations span more than 740,000 hectares of land and includes more than 50,000 head of cattle, Clayton Utz said. CAIT also bought station plant and equipment in the deal. It plans to diversify the stations, which have been mainly used for breeding and growing cattle, into high-value cropping and other non-pastoral use, the firm said.