There was an article that appeared in The Australian titled...

There was an article that appeared in The Australian titled 'China's New Hope hungry for $1bn of food assets'. I was unable to find a link so here are the main points below as relevant to SFG.

I think it will be of interest, especially the parts where NewHope's boss is quoted as saying he is after Australian aquaculture assets and how he prefers to take majority stakes in the companies he invests in, yet as I previously posted the Chairman (of SFG) intends to keep a majority of the company while selling off a 40% stake.

Also, the reference to a lack of scale in Australia being a problem is interesting. There is certainly no problem in that regard in the case of Project Sea Dragon.

China's largest private agribusiness congolmerate, New Hope Group (NHG), is on the hunt for food and agricultural assets in Australia.

New Hope Group plans to invest more than $1 billion in Australia's farm, food processing and property sectors in the next three years.

New investments in fish farming and aquaculture, beef feedlots, organic enterprises, food processing and irrigation farming top New Hope's shopping list.

Mr Liu (Chairman and billionaire founder of NHG) believes the already considerable investment in local food and agricultural assets by his New Hope Group in Australia has won the tacit approval of the Australian Government.

'By our investments here we have shown to local authorities that we being more jobs, empolyment, market opportunities, capital and tax and that we invest in our businesses to grow and expand with our local partners. We are very confident about investing in Australia.'

Mr Liu said that his preference was to take majority stakes in existing agricultural and food businesses in partnership with local Australian companies, often leaving existing management in place.

'We are focusing on finding strategic partners that we can invest in and together grow bigger and stronger, often the biggest limiting factor here is scale.'

'People say we are very diversified with healthcare, property, dairy and meat, but I say no. Everything is about the health and well-being of people in the end. That is why Australia is one of our major focus areas. Your farmers are excellent in local expertise and you have some of the best pastures and clean air in the world.'

Mr Liu was emphatic that China's degraded soil, pollution and urbanisation made food self-sufficiency impossible.