China Dairy Corp to join ASX in hunt for Australian assets Agriculture Simon Evans China Dairy is focusing on Australia. Photo: Louie Douvis A dairy company in China with milk production from 40,000 cows intends listing on the Australian Securities Exchange in   November and will have a market capitalisation of about$145million as it steps up the hunt for Australian assets. 
China Dairy Corporation is in the final stages of preparing for a listing on the ASX and a capital raising of up to $20million.
It is eyeing potential acquisitions among Australian dairy processing companies and also dairy farms in Australia to expand its throughput, in a twin strategy that also centres on expanding its own dairy businesses in China.
The company's chief executive is Youliang Wang and a listing will expand the number of dairy companies and producers on the ASX in a sector that has experienced a raft of corporate activity.
Australia's biggest milk processor, Murray Goulburn, raised $500million and undertook a partial listing on the ASX via a unit trust in   July. It allowed non-farmer investors to buy a stake for the first time. Another company with dairy interests and seafood businesses, Beston Global Foods, listed on the ASX in   August this year.
BlueMount Capital, with offices in Australia and Asia, is understood to be putting the final touches to the ASX listing plans for China Dairy Corporation.
It intends to list the company on the ASX via Chess Depositary Interests, which allow international companies to trade on the local stock exchange.
Presentations to potential investors are thought to outline that China Dairy Corporation had revenues of about $80million in 2014-15. The initial public offering is built around an issue price of 20¢ a share. The pre-IPO valuation of the firm is $130 million.
China Dairy Corporation has five main customers and has land use rights over about 17.4 million square metres of land in five sites in north-eastern China.
The group owns cows in its own right and also has contractual arrangements with a number of other partners which meant it had acess to milk from 40,000 cows at   June 30, 2015.
An overview of the dairy sector in Australia published this month by industry body Dairy Australia expects milk production in 2015-16 from Australian farmers to rise about 2 per cent to between 9.8billion to almost 10 billion litres.
This follows growth of 3.8per cent in 2014-15 to 9.7 billion litres.
Dairy Australia also outlined that free trade agreements such as the China Australia Free Trade Agreement had created strong positive sentiment and a significant boost to farmer confidence.