September 04, 2012
Land trusts to continue Crafar farm challenge
Central North Island Maori trusts are heading back to court seeing to stop the sale of the Crafar farms to Chinese company Shanghai Pengxin.
Hardie Peni from the Tiroa E and Te Hape B Trusts says they will be seeking leave to appeal the High Court decision that the sale met all the tests in the law relating to the sale of land to foreign owners.
He says the trusts have external funding to pursue the action, because of its importance to all New Zealand.
His trusts had sought to buy two farms near Bennydale, but the asking price set by Shanghai Pengxin and its agent Landcorp were too high.
If there was no further legal action, the estimated $210 million deal to buy the 16 dairy farms out of receivership would have gone unconditional this week.