Overseas investment decision for case 202100803 - SunPork Holdings Pty Limited

An overseas investment in sensitive land, being the Applicant’s acquisition of the remaining 33.33% interest in the freehold of approximately:

• 142.8540 hectares of land located at 562 Monument Road, North Waikato contained in Record of Title SA24A/1334 (South Auckland),
• 31.1608 hectares of land located at 118 Frost Road, Onewhero, Franklin contained in Record of Title SA286/274 (South Auckland), 
• 30.8922 hectares of land located at 715 Mitchells Road, Canterbury, contained in Record of Title 469166 (Canterbury), 
• 10.1778 hectares of land located at 207 Substation Road, Canterbury contained in Record of Title CB319/149 (Canterbury), and 
• 208.5950 hectares of land located at 60 Pilbrow Road, Palmerston, North Otago contained in Records of Title OT175/228, OT18B/852, OT202/124, OT5A/692 (Otago).

The Applicant is part of a group of Australian companies known as the SunPork Group. The SunPork Group is the largest pork producer in Australia, supplying approximately 20% of all Australian pork, operating 43 farms in four states.

The SunPork Group own a 66.67% share in PIC NZ Holdings Limited, which owns five pig farming units in New Zealand comprising approximately 423.7 hectares of freehold land via a subsidiary company. The Applicant seeks consent to acquire the remaining 33.33% of shares in PIC NZ Holdings Limited to streamline and simplify the ownership of the company, and pursue the Applicant's strategic development plan.

The investment is likely to result in the introduction of welfare friendly technology, increased productivity (through strategies to improve the health status of pig herds), increased processing (increased pig production is likely to result in increased processing), and support of significant government policy (new technology likely to support government policy on animal welfare).

Consent was granted to the investment because the benefits likely to occur as a result of the investment are of a size or nature that represent a substantial benefit to New Zealand, such that the modified benefit test for farm land is met.