AUSTRALIA'S biggest dairy, the Kiwi-owned Van Dieman's Land Company in Tasmania, has sold for $280 million.
VDL is owned by New Zealand's New Plymouth District Council.
Last week it was announced VDL, which is administered under Taranaki Investment Management Limited (Timl), had been sold to a private company.
At the time Timl chief executive Mike Trousselot said he could not reveal how much the deal was worth or who had secured the long standing farms.
On Friday a company called Moon Lake Investments announced it had made a binding offer, subject to the approval of Australia's Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB), to buy the Tasmanian farms package.
Moon Lake, through its senior counsel David Ikin said the cash offer of AUD$280m (NZD$307m) had been accepted.
Moon Lake is an Australian company set up as a vehicle specifically for the acquisition of the farms.
The sole owner of Moon Lake is Lu Xianfeng, a Chinese businessman who already has an interest in a range of industries and businesses in Australia.
The farms are owned through New Plymouth council's Perpetual Investment Fund (PIF), which was created from the $259m sale of the council's shares in Powerco in 2004.
Since its inception the PIF has pumped more than $180m back into council coffers. The fund peaked in value at $324m in 2008, but its worth dropped to about $203m in 2013.
The PIF has since become a hot political topic with more than a few current councillors having been elected on the promise of "sorting out the PIF".
Last month it was revealed the fund had grown to $253.6m, just shy of its original value.
The sale of the farms is expected to significantly increase the value of the fund further and it could be the monetary balance of the PIF may end up at the highest it has ever been.
The news of the NZD$307m deal comes after the revelation that Australian owned company OnCard International, now known as TasFoods, has secured a legal injunction to block the sale.
In early November OnCard International/TasFoods announced it had agreed to buy the farming business for AUD$250 million (NZD$275m).
However, last week it was revealed that a new buyer had been found and OnCard/TasFoods had missed out.
Since then TasFoods has hit out at New Plymouth's council and said it believed it already had a deal for the farms.
The company has launched legal action and was granted an interim Supreme Court of Victoria injunction, blocking the sale to the other bidder.
On Wednesday a Supreme Court judge in Victoria upheld the injunction and according to Australian news agency ABC, the judge ordered the defendants to provide TasFood's lawyers with details of its sale contract with the foreign buyer.
The injunction has been extended until next week, when the case will be back before the court.
New Plymouth District Council chief executive Barbara McKerrow said at this stage the council was unable to make any further comment about the deal.
She reiterated what has been said by the district's mayor Andrew Judd - that the binding deal was significantly superior and comprehensive legal advice has been taken throughout the transaction process.
"When we are in position to make further comment to our community we certainly will," McKerrow said.
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