Guy Hands buys Aussie cattle ranches from Packer family

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Jamie Packer is reported to be in talks to sell the farms for about A$425 million (£201.6 million).

Packer inherited the vast property holdings from his tycoon father, Kerry Packer, who was passionate about the business.

But like the publishing interests so dear to his father's heart, the younger Packer is jettisoning them to focus on the family's gambling empire.

Hands is in advanced talks over the deal, according to the Australian Financial Review.

The stations run more than 300,000 cattle. Packer holds a 90% stake in Consolidated Pastoral Company. Ken Warriner, a close friend of the elder Packer, owns the remaining 10% and is expected to retain his stake.

The company was formed in 1983 with the purchase of the flagship Newcastle Waters Station in the Northern Territory. Since then other stations in the Northern Territory, Western Australia, Queensland and New South Wales have been added, bringing total land owned to 12.3 million acres.

Kerry Packer used to spend time on the stations where he used to like to shoot pigs from his helicopter.

"He had a lot of time for the people in the north because they copped it pretty tough," Warriner once said.

Over the past two years Jamie Packer has sold off almost all of his family's share of traditional media assets, including the Nine Network television and Australian Consolidated Press magazines.

The move would be a departure from Terra Firma's focus on Europe, but Hands has shown a willingness to invest across a range of sectors with a property portfolio in Germany - where it is the country's biggest landlord - and the UK, with former Ministry of Defence housing and motorway service stations.