2 hours ago
2
Father and son property investors Roy and Anthony Medich have had their eye on key pastoral landholdings in the Southern Highlands since 2021, when vast tracts of it were put up for sale in one job lot by Hume Coal.
The Medichs’ $85 million offer for the entire 1300 hectares stretching from Berrima to Sutton Forest would have been enough to buy it all if they weren’t outbid by the $101 million offer by mysterious businessman Peter Crown.
Five years later, and after Crown’s property empire has spectacularly collapsed, the Mediches have finally done it: paying about $40 million for the largest remaining farm in the Hume Coal aggregation, Evandale.
The billionaire family’s off-market purchase of the Berrima farm – on which Crown had once proposed to build a new town with 5000 homes, called Evandale – was revealed by way of a caveat on title, making it the Mediches second significant purchase from Crown.
Back in 2022, just days after Crown settled on the Hume Coal aggregation, about 40 per cent of the land, known as the historic Mereworth Farm, was sold for $49 million to the cash-paying Mediches.
The latest purchase brings the Mediches’ holding to 1200 hectares, making them one of the largest landholders in the Southern Highlands. The Mediches declined to comment.
The $40 million purchase price put forward by local sources is a significant discount on the mortgagee’s $60 million hopes of last year, and comes after an unknown buyer offered $50 million, only to pull out of the deal.
The Mediches’ gain coincides with ever-mounting losses for Crown and his lenders. Receivers took control of his landmark Southern Highlands holdings last year after Crown defaulted on his $87 million loan from Merricks Capital.
It was one of three loans on the property, totalling $120 million, and interest rates that ranged from 12 per cent to a default rate of 72 per cent. The debt owed Merricks Capital alone has since blown out to more than $137 million.
A third farm that was part of the aggregated site, called Stonington, has also sold mortgagee-in-possession for $13.3 million to billionaires Michael and John Borg, founders of manufacturing and recycling giant Borg. An office in Berrima sold last year for $400,000.
That leaves more than $103 million worth of property sold by the receiver Newpoint Advisory, leaving just the 82-hectare farm Leets Vale at Moss Vale yet to be sold.
The sell-off marks an end to Crown’s grand plans for the lush cattle-grazing land. As well as a new township on the farm Evandale, he also proposed an auto-industrial park, a luxury auto lifestyle club with a world-class racetrack called Celer Club, and a technology and education park called Silicon Highlands, complete with a university, private high school and a hospital.
In a bid to stave off his many creditors, Crown has taken to the courts. By his own count, he has been either a defendant or plaintiff in 16 recent NSW Supreme Court proceedings.
Crown stated in an affidavit filed last month that he has been largely without any legal representation since last year, although he was represented in the Court of Appeal by barrister Jocelyn Jaffray, who recently represented billionaire Gina Rinehart in a fence dispute with a Northern Tablelands neighbour.
“The effect on me personally from managing the other litigation in 2025 has been immense,” he stated. “I do not have any formal legal training.
“I spend approximately 10-12 hours each day dealing with matters related to those proceedings and associated matters.”
Of those, one was his failed Court of Appeal bid to reclaim more than $10 million worth of shares in the software platform Ailo that were held by the receivers of his investment company Resilient Investment Holdings.
Crown was appealing a Supreme Court declaration of last year in which Justice Michael Ball found he had engaged in misleading or deceptive conduct, and issued orders confirming that the Ailo shares remained in the control of receivers.
Crown’s appeal was not successful. On Tuesday, Court of Appeal Justice Christine Adamson took just 30 words to dismiss Crown’s claim and order him to pay the costs of the appointed receiver and manager, Costa Nicodemou.
Founder and chief executive of Ailo, Ben White, said it was a massive relief to finally, hopefully, end Crown’s involvement in the start-up.
Of the more than 10.4 million shares Crown had purchased in the software management platform in 2019, White bought them back from the liquidators last month on behalf of shareholders to end his involvement.
It wasn’t a lucrative sale for liquidators. Crown’s $10.75 million investment in Ailo was bought back for a fraction of his purchase price.
Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.
