A Mid Canterbury meat processing plant will be expanded — including a new beef chain — following its $15 million acquisition by a subsidiary of a Tokyo Stock Exchange-listed company.
The latest Overseas Investment Act decision showed consent had been granted for SFJ Holdings Ltd to acquire up to 100% of the shares in Ashburton Meat Processing Ltd, which has a freehold interest in about 20ha in Bridge St, Ashburton, and about 17ha on the corner of Glassworks Rd and Bridge St, for meat-processing activities.
The vendors were listed as A. Verkerk Ltd and Mary-Anne Caroline Mills, while the applicant was a subsidiary of S Foods Inc, a Japan-based company mainly engaged in manufacturing and selling meat products.
The land was used for processing meat and managing associated waste and the new owner would expand the facility through constructing a new beef-processing chain. Following the expansion, the facility would start processing wagyu beef.
The decision said consent was granted as the applicant had met the investor test criteria and the investment was likely to benefit New Zealand. The main benefits were likely to include increased jobs, productivity and export receipts and capital expenditure.
Meanwhile, Ingka Investments Forest Assets NZ Ltd and Ingka Investments Management NZ Ltd continue their buy-up of New Zealand farmland for forestry conversion, spending just over $13million to acquire a freehold interest in Waikareao Station, a 1053ha property in Hawke’s Bay.
About 1024ha of the property was used as a sheep, beef and deer breeding and finishing station. The land sustained significant damage during Cyclone Gabrielle. About 87ha would be subdivided and retained by the vendor, Okapua Partnership.
The applicants — which were owned by Ingka Investments B.V, the investment arm of Ingka Group, the largest franchisee of Ikea stores internationally — intended continuing the existing forestry operations and establishing a commercial production forest on the land now used for pastoral farming.
The main benefits to New Zealand were assessed as being increased expenditure and export receipts. Other benefits are likely to include increased domestic processing and jobs, and advancement of significant government policy through emissions reductions, the decision said.
