The Overseas Investment Office has given an American cold storage company the go-ahead to buy Versacold NZ in a $57 million deal that will see the overseas company become the world’s biggest in the business.

Americold  said the purchase of Versacold NZ will make it the largest owner and operator of temperature-controlled warehouses in the world.

The OIO has also given the go-ahead for a German business, AgrarInvest, to buy more than 400 hectares of the Southland Waicola dairy farm land for $11.7 million. The German business already has a number of dairy farming assets in Australia and New Zealand and beef farming investments in Brazil.