Floating in a green sea BRIDGET CARTER & GRETCHEN FRIEMANN - THE...

Floating in a green sea
BRIDGET CARTER & GRETCHEN FRIEMANN - THE AUSTRALIAN 7 HOURS AGO

The sun has finally returned to the nation’s agriculture sector. After the successful debut of Murray Goulburn on the ASX last week, the next company passing the hat around for a stockmarket listing is Beston Global Food Company, which is hoping to raise $130m at 35c per share.
Bell Potter and Morgans are on the float ticket.
Yet while offshore appetite for agriculture offerings are increasing — Chinese investors heavily supported Murray Goulburn’s $450m raising — domestic investors remain cautious.
The scepticism has reached acute levels on Beston Global, largely due to a whopping 17 per cent performance fee levied by management if the company outperforms the S&P/ASX 200 index.
Unflattering comparisons are being drawn to the bubble stocks of the pre-GFC era.
There are concerns too at Beston Global’s 20 per cent holdings in more than half a dozen companies. According to sources familiar with the company, these entities, spanning the dairy, seafood, meat and bio-techbnology sectors, could peel away from the group within a few years and the minority holding would give Beston Global little influence on events.
However others insist the company’s business model of a closed loop supply chain, designed to take advantage of a huge demand for green food in Australia, will draw strong support for its IPO.