{"id":665586,"date":"2026-05-12T08:06:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T08:06:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/665586\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T08:06:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T08:06:16","slug":"holmes-a-court-family-owned-heytesbury-buys-11-live-export-ships-in-major-deal-with-vroon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/665586\/","title":{"rendered":"Holmes \u00e0 Court family-owned Heytesbury buys 11 live export ships in major deal with Vroon"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Dutch-based shipping company Vroon has announced it is selling its live export subsidiary (Livestock Express) to the Australian company Heytesbury, in a major deal that includes a fleet of 11 live export ships.<\/p>\n

Owned by the Holmes \u00e0 Court family, Heytesbury runs 165,000 head of cattle across 2.7 million hectares in northern Australia, including the famous Victoria River Downs.<\/p>\n

In 2019 Heytesbury bought its first live export ship, the MV Ocean Swagman<\/a>, which has since been operated by Livestock Express.<\/p>\n

\"Heytesbury\u2019s<\/p>\n

Paul Holmes \u00e0 Court pictured with Martijn Schouten. (Supplied: Vroon)<\/p>\n

In a statement, Heytesbury CEO Paul Holmes \u00e0 Court said it was important Livestock Express kept operating independently and “servicing markets all around the globe”.<\/p>\n

“We’re both part of a vital global protein trade, and tens of millions of people around the world rely on this fleet to help secure their food supply,” he said.<\/p>\n

“The combined expertise of Heytesbury and Livestock Express, with its purpose-built ships, highly professional seafarers and strong client partnerships, will cement its position as the global leader in this vital shipping sector.”<\/p>\n

The list of ships now owned by Heytesbury includes many involved in northern Australia’s live export trade with Indonesia and other parts of south-east Asia.<\/p>\n

The following vessels were included in the sale:<\/p>\n

Brahman ExpressFriesian ExpressGalloway ExpressGanado ExpressGelbray ExpressGirolando ExpressGloucester ExpressGreyman ExpressGudali ExpressMurray ExpressShorthorn ExpressGood sign for Australia’s live export trade<\/p>\n

Australian Cattle Enterprises managing director Patrick Underwood said his company was chartering the Girolando Express for the rest of the year and had been assured it would be “business as usual”.<\/p>\n

“I was a little bit shocked when I heard the news of this transaction going through, but I’m really happy for the Holmes \u00e0 Court family and think it’s a great thing for the industry,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I just want the fleet to be maintained to the very high standard that it has been [under Vroon] and for as many ships as possible to stay in Australia.<\/p>\n

“I think this sale is a good sign and the fundamentals of the live export trade remain strong.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The Greyman Express, pictured loading up in Darwin, is now owned by Heytesbury. (ABC Rural: Daniel Fitzgerald)<\/p>\n

A business 60 years in the making<\/p>\n

Vroon chief executive officer Martijn Schouten said he was proud of everyone who had helped build Livestock Express into the “world’s largest independent livestock carrier” over the past 60 years.<\/p>\n

“With Heytesbury as a strategic owner, we are pleased that all the staff and the legacy of Vroon in the trade are in safe and reputable hands, with a solid outlook for the future,” he said.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Vroon said the fleet of livestock carriers transported between 600,000 and 750,000 head of livestock annually.<\/p>\n

It said the divestment would further strengthen the company’s financial position, providing a solid foundation for activities in its niche markets of high heat (energy and liquids), emergency response and rescue, and offshore infrastructure and offshore wind.<\/p>\n

NTXLS Asia managing director Nick Thorne, based in the Northern Territory, said Vroon had been looking to sell the fleet for several years and the sale to Heytesbury was good news for Australia’s live export industry.<\/p>\n

“Vroon was very innovative in the live export space and moved from conversions to new builds, including ships with big technical advancements in ventilation,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Their ships have always been very well engineered, backed by a great technical team, and they’ve been the benchmark of good shipping.”<\/p>\n

\"Workers<\/p>\n

The MV Galloway Express and MV Ganado Express first sailed in 2013, and are now owned by Heytesbury. (Vroon)<\/p>\n

How much is the deal worth?<\/p>\n

Under the agreement, Vroon said it would divest all 11 of its owned livestock vessels plus 100 per cent of its shares in Livestock Express to Heytesbury for an “undisclosed amount”.<\/p>\n

Heytesbury will also assume Livestock Express’s Singapore office and its technical management services for third-party vessels.<\/p>\n

Mr Thorne said it was the world’s largest live export fleet owned by one company and would be a “significant investment going into the hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Dutch-based shipping company Vroon has announced it is selling its live export subsidiary (Livestock Express) to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":665587,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,99,13331,7136,11054,321431,321432,170969,321433,139885,45433,321430],"class_list":["post-665586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-cattle","tag-deal","tag-exports","tag-heytesbury","tag-holmes-a-court","tag-live-export","tag-patrick-underwood","tag-ships","tag-sold","tag-vroon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=665586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/665587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=665586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=665586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=665586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}