Ann: Annual Report to shareholders, page-7

I agree. It does look quite opportunistic.

I don't think Webster are really interested in the cotton or sheep, most likely they just want the water.

The trajectory of Webster in recent years has been interesting. Five years ago, Webster had fingers in many pies: aquaculture, via their investment in Tassal, as well as carrots, onions, and walnuts.

In 2010, the company divested their stake in Tassal, and moved out of their carrot growing operations. In 2014 they decided to ditch the onions, and so now the company into a pure-play walnut farmer.

Basically, today Webster are only interested in tree-nuts, which are highly water intensive.


If this transaction goes ahead, Webster will be nearly as large as the other tree-nut farmer on the ASX, Select Harvests.

For this reason, I'm sure the management of Select would be keeping a watchful eye on this development.