Murrumbidgee Irrigation Sells Griffith Sites

15 August 2003

Murrumbidgee Irrigation is pleased to announce the sale of their Griffith premises to Milbrae Quarries.

"The exchange is a win for Milbrae Quarries, Murrumbidgee Irrigation and the community", said Geoff Hipkins, Chief Executive of Murrumbidgee Irrigation.

"The principle motivation behind selling our Griffith sites was to realise the capital growth on the real estate. The Board made the decision on behalf of shareholders and we believe our shareholders will reap the benefits at the end of the day," continued Mr Hipkins. "We have been looking to strategically relocate our Griffith operations to a single site in an effort to further streamline operations.

With that in mind, the Board required all three properties to be sold at the same time, removing any possibility that we would be left with only one site that was unable to accommodate all facets of our business."

Milbrae Quarries were the successful buyers among many potential purchasers. We had some interest from consortiums outside of the local area, however, few were able to accommodate the requirement to take all three sites.

Milbrae Quarries are locally owned and operated. "We see this as an investment in Griffith and the local area," said Chris Woods, General Manager, Milbrae Quarries. "We are very confident in the future of Griffith and have no hesitation in making an investment of this nature in the city. At this stage we have no immediate plans for the sites and are happy to cooperate with Murrumbidgee Irrigation on their plans for relocation."

"The Company's operations in Leeton will not be affected by developments in Griffith. Our combined Leeton site works very well and we are looking at making a similar move in Griffith to the one we made in Leeton some 10 years ago when we moved to an amalgamated site."

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