Australian Rural Capital Ltd and South Australia

Western Australia: China Dakang Australia Holdings wants to buy 80 per cent of the company while Australian Rural Capital Ltd is looking to take the rest, subject to approval by the Foreign Investment Review Board, according to Nine News Australia. S. Kidman & Co runs almost 200,000 cattle over more than 100,000 square kilometres in South Australia, Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory. Treasurer Scott Morrison has signed an interim order preventing the sale of S. Kidman & Co for 90 days and has ordered an independent review into the deal. The company holdings account for 1.3 per cent of Australia total land mass and 2.5 per cent of its agricultural land. But independent senator Glenn Lazarus urged the government to block the deal and criticised the treasurer for delaying a decision until after the likely July 2 poll."The people of Australia have had enough," he said."The Turnbull government needs to facilitate the sale of key agricultural assets to Australian buyers to keep these valuable assets in Australian hands."A previous foreign bid to buy Kidman was last year knocked back on national interest grounds. Mr Morrison says he must be "absolutely confident" that Australians have been given every opportunity to participate in the tender process."National interest considerations and proposed transactions should not and will not, on my watch, be rushed," he told reporters in Canberra on Wednesday. (news.financializer.com). As reported in the news.