The deal marks the launch of a new fund into the New Zealand market. Melbourne-based funds manager and property financier Merricks Capital has completed a $140 million refinance of the Van Leeuwen Group dairy operation in the South Island. Merricks is backed by the wealthy Liberman family, holders of the second-largest distributed family fortune in Australia. The dairy business is owned by Aad and Wilma van Leeuwen and comprises more than 7500 hectares of land across 11 dairy farms. A South Canterbury farm owned by the group was one of the first to be identified as having the cattle disease Mycoplasma bovis. Efforts are still under way to attempt to wipe out the