Treasury Wine Estates has bought back 2799 megalitres of high security water entitlements in New South Wales from Duxton Water for $25.2 million. TWE and Duxton entered a water licence sale and leaseback agreement in July last year.
The deal involved 4770 megalitres – the 2799 of high security and 1971 megalitres of high reliability – of permanent water entitlements connected to vineyards TWE was looking to offload.
In May 2023, TWE announced it was carrying out a strategic review of its operations, with divestments and rationalising assets on the table.
In June it announced it was selling more than 1000 hectares of vineyards in South Australia, then the water licences, and in July it said it was divesting its commercial winery, Karadoc, in Victoria as well as vineyards in New South Wales and Victoria.
The water licence agreement was conditional on TWE selling the vineyards. If the sale was not completed by 14 June, then TWE could buy the licences back at market price.
Duxton told the ASX it expects to realise a “significant accounting profit” from the transaction, which it will disclose in its FY24 half-year report.
