North Otago meat processor Lean Meats Oamaru is now wholly Chinese-owned.
NZ Binxi Oamaru, a subsidiary of the Heilongjiang Binxi Cattle Industry Company, based in the Heilongjiang province, has bought the remaining shareholding from Lean Meats Ltd.
The company had firstly bought a 24.9% stake in the plant and then upped that to 50%.
Abco Meats, as it used to be known, was set up with mainly farmer and butcher shareholders to buy, upgrade and operate the former Oamaru borough abattoirs in the 1970s.
Hastings-based Lean Meats bought Abco Meats (Oamaru) Ltd, which had gone into receivership, in 2006.
The transaction would allow Lean Meats Ltd to concentrate on its core business of marketing and exporting New Zealand lamb.
It would continue to be a major customer, Oamaru Meats Ltd director Richard Thorp said.
The Oamaru plant would be a dual plant, processing beef and sheep, and there were plans to increase the number of staff, Mr Thorp said.
