Van Leeuwen Dairy Group was started by Aad and Wilma van Leeuwen, who arrived in New Zealand in the early 1990s and built a 600ha farm south of Timaru, installing robotic milking machines and eventually added a number of satellite dairy and drystock farms. The sale is conditional on shareholders’ approval and a special meeting will be held in the next fortnight. It s also conditional on the termination of the receiver by the lender and the Van Leeuwen Group entering into new finance agreements for one of its dairy assets and livestock, and its cooperation with the lender and receiver.
NZ Rural pays $114m for failed Van Leeuwen Group s South Island dairy farms nzherald.co.nz - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from nzherald.co.nz Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The deal marks the launch of a new fund into the New Zealand market.
Melbourne-based funds manager and property financier Merricks Capital has completed a $140 million refinance of the Van Leeuwen Group dairy operation in the South Island.
Merricks is backed by the wealthy Liberman family, holders of the second-largest distributed family fortune in Australia.
The dairy business is owned by Aad and Wilma van Leeuwen and comprises more than 7500 hectares of land across 11 dairy farms.
A South Canterbury farm owned by the group was one of the first to be identified as having the cattle disease
Mycoplasma bovis. Efforts are still under way to attempt to wipe out the
Van Leeuwen dairy operation goes into receivership newshub.co.nz - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from newshub.co.nz Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.