The Overseas Investment Office is investigating the purchase of four North Island dairy farms owned by the Crafar family that weren’t given consent to be sold offshore.

UBNZ Funds Management Ltd – owned by Chinese-born Auckland businesswoman May Wang – bought two farms in Manawatu and one each in Hawke’s Bay and Taranaki in February and immediately transferred the titles to Ms Wang’s New Zealand-registered company , UBNZ Asset Holdings Ltd.

UBNZ Asset Holdings is 20% owned by Chinese firm Natural Dairy NZ, the company  applying to the OIO to buy 25 more North Island farms, and the remainder is owned by Ms Wang on behalf of other investors.

Ms. Wang claims the investigation will prove the deal is above board, but Overseas Investment Office manager Annelies McClure says an associate of an overseas person must also obtain consent to buy sensitive land.

The Overseas Investment Office expects the investigation to take several months.