Under-administration Yeeda Pastoral Company set to be sold

Yeeda Pastoral Company — which owns two large cattle stations and the only major abattoir in WA’s north — is set to be sold after its Kimberley Meat Company plant fell into administration last month. KMC and parent company, Yeeda Pastoral, engaged external investigators from KordaMentha in late February amid financial woes and an ongoing investigation by WA’s environmental regulator into alleged cattle deaths and illegal dumping of abattoir waste. It followed revelations Yeeda Pastoral Company, controlled by Hong Kong-based shareholder Asia Debt Management, allegedly owes more than $5 million in unpaid debts to Australian businesses and individuals. On Thursday, KordaMentha confirmed that it planned to sell Yeeda Pastoral Company and its subsidiaries. “Our current focus is on stabilising the group’s operations, preservation of the key assets and preparation for a sale process,” KordaMentha’s David Osborne told Countryman. “The voluntary administrators will shortly be taking the group’s assets to market. We expect a high level of interest given the iconic and unique nature of the pastoral assets and abattoir.” Mr Osborne also confirmed that trading at the KMC abattoir had been transitioned to “care and maintenance”, leading to an undisclosed number of job losses at the processing plant, which is located between Broome and Derby. “Yeeda Station is continuing its operations with the ongoing support of the workforce,” he said. “Having only been called in recently to assist, the administrators are still assessing all the circumstances leading up to the companies entering voluntary administration.” As well as the KMC abattoir, Yeeda Pastoral Company controls Yeeda Station and Mount Jowlaenga Station in the Kimberley. Last November, it emerged the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation had launched a probe into Yeeda Pastoral Company after it was accused of negligence leading to the deaths of more than 400 cattle, and of illegally dumping tonnes of slaughtered animal waste on Yeeda Station. The deaths are alleged to have occurred after the company yarded more than 1000 scrub bulls in early 2022. The investigation is ongoing.