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The daughter of former Te Wananga o Aotearoa chief executive Rongo Wetere has bought a Southland dairy farm for a record $29.3 million.
The deal comes as the median price paid for a dairy farm in New Zealand tops the $3 million mark, on the back of expected record dairy payouts.
Susan Cullen, who in 2005 estimated her personal fortune to be $30 million, will take over the 490 hectare farm with her husband Brett next week.
The property, in two titles, is 8km from Edendale and boasts five homes and more than $4 million worth of plant and stock, included in the purchase price.
PGG Wrightson Real Estate general manager Stuart Cooper told the Southland Times the deal was the highest price paid for a dairy farm in Southland.
It illustrated an ongoing trend in the rural sector, where property prices have risen by about 30 per cent since the start of the year.
Mr Cooper said the speedy nature of the transaction meant Mrs Cullen and her husband would capture a major proportion of this year's record payout, tipped at $6.40c per kilogram of milksolids.
The Cullens have been dairy farming for the past 20 years, but Mrs Cullen said the success of her work in educational programming for the international sector had helped her and her husband to fund their new property.
Meanwhile, after three straight losses and years of political turmoil, Te Wananga o Aotearoa is forecasting it will produce a $3 million to $4 million surplus this year.
The institution won't reveal the scale of its losses over the past few years, saying it must first report to the Government.
But chief executive Bentham Ohia told the New Zealand Herald the turnaround showed the wananga was shrugging off the past and moving on.
A major restructuring - which including culling 380 jobs - had not been easy but the losses and management changes were necessary, he said.
The wananga came under intense scrutiny in 2005 when a government inquiry identified nepotism, poor record keeping, expensive overseas travel and numerous other problems.
Mr Wetere resigned at the end of that year with a $120,000 six-month salary cheque after an auditor-general's report found contracts worth millions of dollars were awarded to members of his family.
- NZPA
