S. Kidman and Co has named a new Chinese-Australian consortium as the preferred buyer for most of its iconic cattle station holdings.

The sale cannot proceed without the approval of the Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) and the Treasurer Scott Morrison, who has extended the time available for his consideration of the sale beyond the expected July election.

South Australia's Anna Creek Station, which is adjacent to the rocket testing range at Woomera, is not included in the sale.

The value of the deal is $370.7 million.

In a statement released on Tuesday afternoon, Kidman announced it has entered into an agreement with a consortium lead by Dakang Australia Holdings and the ASX-listed Australian Rural Capital (ARC).

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Under the proposal, Dakang would take an 80 per cent stake in the sale, with ARC taking 20 per cent.

Dakang Australia's parent company is Hunan Dakang Pasture Farming, a private Chinese company with no government ownership.

Its major shareholder is Shanghai Pengxin Group, which owns a 55 per cent stake in the company.

Shanghai Pengxin has previously been considered a frontrunner to buy the Kidman properties.

Dakang Pasutre Farming and has interests in pork, beef and sheep, as well as a significant stake in New Zealand's dairy sector.

ARC's executive chairman, James Jackson, is also deputy director of Australian agribusiness Elders, as well as a former chairman of MSF Sugar.

Anna Creek carve-out allows sale to proceed

The ABC can reveal that the prospective buyer of Anna Creek is the South Australian owned and operative, Williams Cattle Company.

It already owns five cattle stations in SA’s north, including one which adjoins Anna Creek.

But that deal will only proceed if and when the FIRB approves the broader sale to the Chinese-led consortium.

Kidman had planned to sell all its assets to a foreign buyer, before that proposal was rejected by the Treasurer in November 2015.

Mr Morrison cited concerns about Anna Creek's size, and its proximity to the weapons testing range at Woomera, in rejecting the deal.

"We welcome foreign investment, but as Treasurer I will always make sure that that investment is done in Australia's national interest," he said at the time, noting the government would consider any "future alternate proposal or set of proposals on its merits".

At more than 23,600 square kilometres, Anna Creek represents a quarter of Kidman's land holding.

The company, surprised by the Treasurer's decision, announced in December that it would take Anna Creek off the table for prospective foreign buyers, offering it for sale only to existing shareholders or other Australian buyers.

Managing director Greg Campbell said at the time that such a division of assets was "undesirable in an operational sense, [but it] was required to address the national security and portfolio land area concerns of the Commonwealth Government".

An iconic cattle station and national defence concerns

Family-owned S. Kidman & Co is Australia's largest private landholder, with properties covering 101,000 square kilometres in Western Australia, South Australia, the Northern Territory and Queensland.

Founded in 1899 by Sir Sidney Kidman, it grew to become one of the country's largest beef producers, with a herd of 185,000 cattle supplying markets in Japan, the United States and South-East Asia.

Anna Creek Station is the largest single property holding in Australia.

It's not the first time the Australian Government has expressed concerns about foreign ownership in and adjacent to the Woomera Prohibited Area.

Former Treasurer Wayne Swan blocked a Chinese state-owned firm from buying parts of Oz Minerals in 2009, citing proximity of one of the mining company's projects to the test site.

After the deal was rejected in November, Kidman's Greg Campbell said the company had ensured all potential buyers completed due diligence in an attempt to mitigate any issues surrounding national security.

"We certainly were well aware and made potential buyers for the business aware that they had to make applications to the Department of Defence in relation to the purchase of the part of Anna Creek that within the Woomera rocket range," Mr Campbell said at the time.

"So all the shortlisted buyers who made applications, whether domestic or offshore, were of the full understanding that the Department of Defence held the right to veto over who might be considered an owners for portions of land within the Woomera rocket range."

He said he was surprised by the government citing the size of Kidman's holding as another factor in rejecting the sale, saying that Kidman is Australia's largest cattle holding by land size, it was not as big as other companies, which have foreign owners, by herd size.

"For example Consolidated Pastoral Company has a herd twice the size of Kidman and is 90 per cent foreign owned. The Australian Agricultural Company has a cattle herd that's nearly three times the size of Kidman and is majority foreign owned," Mr Campbell said.

"Kidman has become a specialist in arid zone pastoralism, and as a result we've got a big foot of country in the dry part of the interior and that's a large area. It's the large area that's the problem."