Meat merchant Macquarie sets up Fund for the hungry

Macquarie Bank's Pastoral Fund Buys First Australian Sheep Farm
By Madelene Pearson

July 11 (Bloomberg) -- Macquarie Bank Ltd., Australia's biggest securities firm, bought the first sheep farm for its new agricultural investment fund.

The Macquarie Pastoral Fund, which didn't say how much it paid, acquired the Pooginook Merino Sheep Stud in the southern Riverina region in New South Wales state from David and Gillian Taylor, the Sydney-based company said today in an e-mailed statement. David Taylor is a non-executive director of the Macquarie fund.

Macquarie has said it will spend as much as A$1 billion ($860 million) buying sheep and cattle farms in Australia to benefit from rising red meat consumption globally. The company is in discussions to buy other properties, it said.

``Macquarie Pastoral considers the merino as an important part of the wool and meat production in Australia,'' Tim Hornibrook, director of the bank's pastoral services said. ``The Pooginook Merino Stud purchase puts the fund in a prime position to capitalize on the best merino genetics available in Australia.''

Pooginook covers 13,360 hectares (33,000 acres), according to its Web site. It produces 500 bales of 20.3 micron wool a year, 1,800 rams for stud, and also sells semen. Macquarie said it expects to announce further acquisitions in coming months.