An all-Australian consortium of grazier families will compete against mining boss Gina Rinehart and her Chinese partner Shanghai CRED to buy S Kidman & Co.
BBHO has offered a $386 million bid to acquire 100 per cent of S Kidman & Co shares, bettering the Rinehart offer by $11 million.
Tom Brinkworth, Sterling Buntine, Malcolm Harris and Viv Oldfield say under their offer, Kidman would stay totally Australian owned, won't require approval from the Foreign Investment Review Board, and would triple the size of the cattle herd marketed under the Kidman name.
"The four families comprising the consortium are deeply committed to honouring and preserving the Kidman heritage and brand which will continue under the stewardship of highly regarded and successful Australian graziers," Mr Buntine said in a statement on Sunday.
Earlier this month, Ms Rinehart lodged a $365 million Australian-majority bid for 67 per cent of S Kidman and Co, with Chinese-owned Shanghai CRED to hold the other third.
The Rinehart bid still needs to go before the before the Foreign Investment Review Board, because there was a minority foreign investor.
An earlier bid this year from a Chinese-led consortium was scuttled by Treasurer Scott Morrison.
Crossbench Senator Nick Xenophon said the BBHO should be the successful bidder.
"This is a dramatic development that turns the Rinehart-Shanghai CRED bid on its head," he told AAP on Sunday.
"Where there is a credible, 100 per cent Australian bid, then it would be unforgivable for the federal government not to approve a 100 per cent local bid."
Senator Xenophon said the BBHO bid came from "families with great depth of experience and commercial acumen in running cattle empires and they have a plan to grow Kidman."
He said a loophole that allowed the FIRB to assess a foreign bid without considering any Australian bid needed to be closed.
"It highlights the need for our foreign investment laws to be changed so that it mandates the consideration of local investment."
S Kidman and Co, founded in 1899, is Australia's largest private landholder with properties covering 101,000 square kilometres across three states and the Northern Territory.
Under the BBHO bid, an Adelaide office would be maintained and the Tungali feedlot would be retained.
