Aware Super, Roc calls in bankers at $1b No.1 chicken farmer ProTen

Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport

Jun 16, 2024 – 7.12pm

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The $175 billion Aware Super has fattened up its chicken farming business ProTen to No.1 in the country over six years of ownership. Now, it has called in Macquarie Capital’s bankers to set the wheels in motion for a juicy payday.

Street Talk can reveal Aware and Sydney agribusiness investor Roc Partners have mandated MacCap to run a strategic review of ProTen’s capital structure. Sources said the immediate task at hand was to secure a refinance for ProTen, after which a sale process was slated to get under way. Of note, that’s precisely the course of events playing out at $4 billion bus group Kinetic.

Six years ago, ProTen was producing 68 million birds or 11 per cent of Australia’s supply. Today’s figures are around 133 million chooks and 19 per cent market share. Jessica Shapiro JLS

ProTen last changed hands for $350 million in 2018, but is now listed among Aware Super’s infrastructure portfolio disclosures with a valuation of between $500 million to $1 billion. Roc manages the stake on Aware Super’s behalf. The acquisition included a sprawling portfolio of real estate.

The business owns and operates 47 broiler farms across NSW, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland and Western Australia. All up, that’s 133 million broiler chickens, which are sent from 561 poultry sheds to clients like Inghams. It traces its roots back to 1987, when founder Mac Bryant established the first shed in New Zealand to house 23,000 birds.

Headquartered in North Sydney, ProTen has upgraded its sheds to use computerised climate control, solar energy and automatic feeding and drinking systems. Sources said it had grown rapidly under Aware and Roc’s stewardship to become Australia’s largest independent, farming asset owner in the domestic poultry supply chain. Six years ago, ProTen was producing 68 million birds or 11 per cent of Australia’s supply. Those figures now stand at around 133 million chooks and 19 per cent market share.

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Accounts filed with ASIC show it made $131.2 million revenue and $19 million after-tax profit in the 2023 financial year, and had a $914 million worth of property on its books.

Back in 2018, when it was last on the auction block via Fort Street Advisers and law firm Clifford Chance, ProTen had just posted $40.3 million revenue and $13.5 million operating profit for the 2017 financial year. But it had $265 million worth of property on its books, allowing Aware Super to classify it as an infrastructure investment as opposed to a private equity one.

Roc, for its part, is a seasoned investor in agricultural assets. Last year, it paid about $350 million to buy family-owned Pace Farms which is Australia’s second-largest egg producer. The firm has more than $2 billion deployed in farming-related businesses, including Stone Axe Pastoral, a producer of Wagyu beef and Flavorite, a glasshouse vegetable grower.