King & Wood Mallesons (KWM) is pleased to have advised industry super fund, Aware Super, on divesting agricultural infrastructure business, ProTen, to KKR.
ProTen develops, owns and operates farm infrastructure for Australia’s poultry supply chain. Aware Super (on behalf of its managed fund) acquired ProTen in 2018. Under Aware Super’s ownership and continued investment, ProTen has seen significant growth in the business. Today, the company manages more than 700 poultry sheds across over 60 farms, located in key agricultural regions nationwide.
The sale highlights Aware Super's expertise in recognising, investing in, and developing agricultural infrastructure assets that are robust, scalable and crucial for addressing the growing demand for sustainable protein and enhancing food supply resilience in Australia.
KWM acted for Aware Super on all aspects of the transaction, including due diligence, debt refinancing and transaction documents.
The KWM deal team consisted of Partners Anthony Boogert and Henrik Moritz, and Senior Associates Naomi Synnott and Rahul Mukherjee. It was supported by experts across the transaction, including Partners Jeff Clark (banking), Malcolm Brennan (regulatory), Mandy Tsang (insurance), Kai-Chen Lamb (tax), Senior Associates Gemma Pastellas (banking), Victoria Lanyon (tax), Jim Zovaro (tax), and Rouzbeh Ansari (insurance) and Solicitor Hae Soo Park (private capital).
Commenting on the deal, Anthony Boogert said:
“KWM congratulates Aware Super on its strategic divestment of Australia’s largest broiler chicken grower, ProTen. The sale demonstrates Aware Super’s disciplined long-term approach and active management across infrastructure assets to deliver strong returns for its members.”
Henrik Moritz added:
“This was a highly competitive sale process for one of the largest agricultural infrastructure businesses in Australia, which is a testament Aware Super’s stewardship. The transaction drew on expertise across the firm, from private capital to regulatory to banking and finance.”
