One of the country's largest dairy farming groups is set to stay in New Zealand hands.
Since South Canterbury Finance collapsed in 2010, receivers have been marketing its shares in New Zealand Dairy Holdings all over the world.
Dairy Holdings Ltd's assets include 58 farms, 40,000 cows and 14,000 acres, making it substantially larger than the 16 Crafar farms.
But unlike the Crafar farms which have been sold to Chinese investors, Dairy Holdings has confirmed to ONE News the buyer is local.
"I can't tell you who the buyer will be but I can tell you the Overseas Investment Office won't be involved," said Dairy Holdings Chairman Bill Bayliss.
The New Zealand Super Fund is known to have expressed interest in Dairy Holdings and some say that would be a good outcome.
"One of the challenges we have in New Zealand is our super schemes are allocating a lot of money overseas themselves," says Federated Farmers Chief Executive Conor English.
"What we would say is why aren't you looking at allocating money to helping New Zealand farmers."
Clearly such an investment has been on the radar for the Super Fund. Chief executive Adrian Orr said in 2010 the fund had up to $500 million to invest in rural land over the next five years.
Federated Farmers says while there may be debate around foreign ownership of Kiwi farms - the most important outcome is good farm management.
"They're managed well in terms of the environmental impact, in terms of economic impact, in terms of how they fit into the community," said English.
The receivers for South Canterbury Finance could not be reached for comment - but others involved are expecting an announcement by the end of the week.
