Hart's 29 farms interest buyers

Prospective buyers have shown interest in a cluster of 29 Graeme Hart-owned dairy farms around Tokoroa, but real estate agents are yet to close any deals.

Carter Holt Harvey spokesman Ross Townshend told the Waikato Times there had been interest in four of the 29 farms which are on the market through Bayleys and PGG Wrightson for a combined $224.5 million.

Mr Townshend's comments came after only 47 farms sold in January, about a quarter of the norm, only seven of which were dairy farms.

The CHH farms, offered for between $5.1m and $10.4m each, support a total of 20,000 cows and produce 6,641,200 kilograms of milksolids.

The Waikato Times understands an offer from a Chinese syndicate was rejected.

The farms had also attracted the interest of a New Zealand and overseas syndicate planning a new milk-processing plant.

Mr Townshend said CHH had created the farms and put them into production between June 2008 and June 2009 with the intention of a later sale.

"We developed the farms with a view to selling them and we are just carrying it though," he said.

"All 29 farms are operating and operating well."

The farms, which ranged from 218 hectares to 726ha, occupied high-yielding dairy farming land which had been converted to forestry in the 1920s to create jobs in the Depression. "This land is too good to be growing trees. It was just growing trees as an accident," Mr Townshend said.

"It's 11,000ha out of 250,000 that we own."

Meanwhile the owners of Brook Dale, a beef fattening unit in Arapuni Rd, near Te Awamutu, offered for sale by Pastoral Realty late last year, are still negotiating with prospective buyers.

Brian Peacocke, principal of Pastoral Realty, said the farm would probably have sold for about $5.2m during the height of the boom. However, he expected the sale price to be at least 20 per cent down on that.

- © Fairfax NZ News