Agribusiness

Live cattle exporter Wellard has announced the sale of one of its mid-sized ships to Israeli company Dabbah Slaughterhouse for $US26 million ($A35 million).

Global ratings agency S&P has cut its credit rating for Quintis for the second time this month and kept the troubled Indian sandalwood producer on credit watch with negative implications, suggesting another downgrade is possible.

Poultry giant Ingham’s will continue to be Woolworths' main chicken meat supplier after the pair extended their national agreement.

Troubled sandalwood producer Quintis has extended its ASX suspension by a week to review its operations and update its earnings guidance.

Fremantle-based livestock exporter Wellard has appointed Chinese businessman Kanda Lu as an executive director in an effort to boost the company's expansion into China's beef cattle market. 

Western Australian farmers are among the most optimistic in the nation, according to the annual Commonwealth Bank of Australia Agi Insights report to be released today, with 39 per cent likely to be investing in their businesses in the year ahead.

Shares in sandalwood company Quintis have gone into a trading halt, after horrific losses last week including a nearly 36 per cent fall on Friday.

SPECIAL REPORT: Paul Holmes a Court plans for Margaret River’s oldest winery may not come to fruition in his lifetime.

SPECIAL REPORT: Fogarty Wine Group has built its brand over two decades to top the list of WA’s major producers.

Poultry producer Ingham’s Chicken will invest more than $70 million to build a new feed mill near Muchea as part of a plan to grow production volumes in Western Australia.

SPECIAL REPORT: After a gruelling decade, even a desultory 2016-17 summer could not dampen the growing enthusiasm among WA winemakers.

Good summer crop conditions and record livestock and wool prices have helped agribusiness Elders lift its first-half profit by 56 per cent and flag the resumption of dividend payments this year.

Ratings agencies Moody’s and S&P have downgraded the debt of agribusiness Qunitis, while private equity fund Black Rock revealed it had taken a 5.1 per cent stake in the company.

Shares in sandalwood supplier Quintis were down 44 per cent today after the company admitted it had lost a contract supplying Nestle five months ago, the second issue relating to a contract this year.

PHOTO ESSAY: Workers from Ocean Grown Abalone will install 5,000 concrete habitats, or Abitats, at Augusta during the next 18 months as part of anexpansion of the company’s aquaculture business.

The aquaculture and fisheries industries are both attracting investor interest as businesses float significant growth plans.

Sandalwood producer Quintis has negotiated a second deferral of an option agreement that could see it having to pay nearly $34 million to buy back 400 hectares of plantations, as the company confirmed it was in advanced negotiations with a possible replacement for a key Chinese customer.

Former Australian Wheat Board chairman Trevor Flugge has been fined $50,000 and barred from managing corporations for five years, after he was convicted in December of breaching his duties as a director while the company was making questionable payments to the government of Iraq.

Loss-making livestock exporter Wellard is undertaking a share placement and entitlement offer as part of a $52 million capital raising it hopes will allow it to exploit a predicted improvement in trading conditions.

CBH Group chief executive Andrew Crane is stepping down from the role after eight years at the helm of Australia's largest grain exporter, with the group to immediately begin a search for his successor.

The competition watchdog is concerned that the proposed takeover of Bibra Lake-based wheat and barley seed breeder InterGrain by Australian Grain Technologies could substantially lessen competition in the barley seeds sector.

Former BHP Billiton executive Julius Matthys has been named interim chief executive of Quintis, after Frank Wilson resigned on Tuesday to plot a takeover of the Indian sandalwood producer.

An extraordinary twist has emerged in the Quintis saga, with founder and managing director Frank Wilson resigning to work with an unnamed overseas corporation that is planning a takeover proposal of the Perth-based Indian sandalwood producer.

Quintis temporarily put the brakes on its falling share price by entering into a trading halt this morning, as it compiled a lengthy response to queries raised by the ASX.

Agribusiness consultancy Kalyx Australia will pursue growth opportunities in horticulture research following its recent merger with Peracto WA, the local franchise of the Tasmania-based Peracto research brand.

Freshly renamed Indian sandalwood producer Quintis has suffered another share price slide, prompting a query from the ASX, following short-seller Glaucus Research Group’s scathing report into the Nedlands-based business yesterday.

Indian sandalwood producer TFS Corporation has blasted US-based short-seller Glaucus Research Group for a scathing report which accused the Perth company of operating a Ponzi-like business structure.

Murdoch University has been named among 42 organisations across Australia charged with establishing a consortium to boost the nation’s agricultural sector.

A Hong Kong-based company has joined the share register of live export business Wellard International just days after Holmes a Court family entity Heytesbury Holdings took a stake.

The investment vehicle of Pakistani meat producer Tariq Butt has sold its remaining 9.5 per cent stake in Wellard to private company Heytesbury, at a premium to the listed agribusiness’s recent trading price.

Livestock agribusiness Wellard has slashed its first-half loss and expects to post a profit in the 2017-18 financial year.

Hancock Prospecting is poised to become Western Australia's biggest private company after a investment and acquisition spree in iron ore and agribusiness which is expected some time this year to push its revenue past that of the incumbent number one for the past 12 years, home builder BGC. A 2018 reranking appears certain following research for the Business News Private Companies list published today in a special report.