Decision follows Scott Morrison’s rejection last Friday of $371m offer for S Kidman and Co, which was deemed against the national interest

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

The Chinese-led consortium seeking to buy the Kidman cattle empire will try again after the treasurer, Scott Morrison, blocked its first attempt.

Australia’s largest landholder agrees to sell to Chinese-led consortium Read more

Australian Rural Capital, the ASX-listed partner of the Chinese firm bidding for the S Kidman and Co pastoral properties, said on Tuesday that it and Dakang Australia would work on a new bid structure acceptable to the Kidman board, shareholders and Morrison.

ARC and Dakang Australia have withdrawn their $371m bid for the 100,000 sq km of Kidman pastoral properties in South Australia, Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory.

Dakang also withdrew its application to the Foreign Investment Review Board to acquire 80% of Kidman.

ARC, Dakang Australia and Kidman have subsequently entered into a binding deed to explore other options.

“The deed specifies and sets out the intentions of ARC, Dakang Australia and Kidman that the parties will continue to, in good faith, negotiate and explore options for an amended structure for the transaction to proceed,” ARC said in a statement on Tuesday.

On Friday Morrison rejected the $371m bid for Kidman on national interest grounds and gave Dakang and ARC until Tuesday to respond to his concerns.

Kidman’s managing director, Greg Campbell, said the Kidman family shareholders were against a break-up of the 120-year-old company and would be seeking clarity from the Australian government about the level of foreign investment that was deemed acceptable.

Kidman runs a herd of almost 200,000 cattle on the largest private land holding in Australia, covering about 1.3% of the nation’s total land area, and 2.5% of its agricultural land.