Ruralco

Ruralco is a diversified agricultural company that provides real estate, insurance, auctioneer services, agricultural equipment and other services to the Australian rural community. Ruralco became a wholly owned subsidiary of Canadian company Nutrien in 2019.[2]

Ruralco

Formerly	Ruralco Holdings Limited
Industry	Agribusiness
Headquarters	Sydney, NSW
Area served	Australia
Key people	Richard Lee (chairman)
Revenue	AUD$1.36 billion (2014[1])
Net income	AUD$10.565 million (2014[1])
Owner	Nutrien
Website	www.ruralco.com.au

History

Ruralco was founded in 1970. By 2001 it had 384 rural supply stores under the brands CRT and Town & Country. In September of that year it merged with Grow Force Australia.[3]

In May 2006 it reverse merged with Australia's oldest publicly listed company, Tasmanian agricultural corporation Roberts Limited.[4]

It sold Monds and Affleck feed supplies to the Ridley Corporation in 2011.[5]

In 2008 it was described as having quietly begun to rival the 'big two' of agricultural industry in Australia, Elders Limited and Landmark.[6] By 2014 it owned 10.1% of Elders, unsuccessfully attempting to purchase the rural services section of Elders for 250 million in 2013. Following falling profits from Elders and the knockback of its purchase offer, it sold all 10.1% of the company.[7]

In February 2014 it acquired Total Eden, a water supplies company, from Anchorage Capital Partners for AUD$57.4 million.[8]

Takeover and delisting from ASX

In June 2019, Agrium Australia Pty Ltd (a wholly owned subsidiary of Canadian company Nutrien) announced the proposed acquisition of Ruralco.[9]

Ruralco shareholders voted overwhelmingly in favour of the $469 million takeover[10] and Ruralco was delisted from the Australian Securities Exchange on 1 October 2019.

Under the new ownership, Ruralco's operations are to be rebranded Nutrien Ag Solutions.[11]

Subsidiaries

Subsidiaries of Ruralco include;

• Combined Rural Traders
• Grow Force Australia[6]
• CQ Agricultural Services[6]
• Total Eden[1]
• Frontier International[1]
• BGa AgriServices[6]
• Archards Irrigation
• Dairy Livestock Services[12]
• Peter Dargan Livestock[12]
• Territory Rural Mcpherson[13]
• BR and C Agents[13]
• Southern Australian Livestock[13]
• Rodwells[13]
• Rawlinson and Brown[13]
• Savage Barker & Backhouse[13]
• Primaries of WA[13]
• Davidson Cameron[13]
• The Farm Shop[6]

Joint ownership

• AgFarm (with CHS Inc.)
• Grant Daniel & Long[13] (with Grant Daniel & Long)

Other acquisitions

• Murray River Wholesalers

References

1. "Ruralco doubles profit, prays for rain". The Australian. 18 November 2014. Retrieved 28 February 2015.
2. "Implementation of scheme of arrangement" (PDF). ASX. 30 September 2019. Retrieved 4 December 2019.
3. "Grow Force Australia and Ruralco undertake merger". Stock Journal. 12 October 2000. Archived from the original on 4 March 2015. Retrieved 28 February 2015.
4. "Ruralco to take on agri-supply giants". The Age. 22 May 2006. Retrieved 28 February 2015.
5. "Ridley to buy Ruralco feed business". Farm Online. 9 December 2011. Retrieved 28 February 2015.
6. "Ruralco moves quietly to rival the big two". The Land Magazine. 7 November 2008. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 28 February 2015.
7. "Ruralco sells Elders stake". The Land. 22 September 2014. Retrieved 28 February 2015.
8. "Ruralco to acquire Total Eden". Business Spectator. 13 February 2014. Retrieved 28 February 2015.
9. "Ruralco scheme booklet" (PDF). ASX. Retrieved 4 December 2019.
10. "Ruralco shareholders vote for $469 (sic) Nutrien takeover". Farmonline National. 6 September 2019. Retrieved 4 December 2019.
11. "Landmark, Ruralco brands unite to form Nutrien Ag Solutions". ABC Rural News. 12 November 2019. Retrieved 4 December 2019.
12. "Ruralco profit increase". McPherson Media Group. 25 November 2014. Retrieved 28 February 2015.
13. "Homann, Bolton move up ladder". Farm Online. 24 July 2008. Retrieved 28 February 2015.