According to The Australian Financial Review, the 111-year-old company, founded by the original "Cattle King" Sidney Kidman, posted a profit of $4.7 million for fiscal 2009 after cutting costs and selling its Sandringham Station in Queensland's channel country.

The company, whose assets now total more than $200 million, has 13.27 million hectares under ownership, almost twice as much as the nearest landholder, the listed Australian Agricultural Company.

S. Kidman & Co, owned by more than 50 shareholders, runs about 200,000 head of cattle spread across the country from the Kimberleys in Western Australia to the world's largest cattle station, Anna Creek, in South Australia.