TIAA-CREF

A New York company managing the retirement savings of workers in Sweden, the US and Canada is evading Brazilian laws on foreign investment to acquire farmlands from a businessman accused of violently displacing local communities.

Global agricultural investor the Westchester Group, owned by pension fund manager TIAA-CREF, is on the hunt to buy farms in New Zealand, after focusing its investment attention for the past 25 years on agriculture in the US, Australia and Brazil.

Pension fund manager TIAA-CREF's farmland assets grew by 56% to $7.8 billion in committed assets.

Investors have turned to farmland as part of a sweeping push into physical assets — everything from lumber, hotels and apartments to parking meters, bridges and highways.

Private equity and venture capital firms are going down to the farm, moving into the agribusiness and agriculture technology sectors in a big way.

TIAA-CREF has closed its second global agriculture fund, TIAA-CREF Global Agriculture II, on $3 billion, exceeding its $2.5 billion target. The fund had raised $1.7 billion by mid-June.

Sweden’s AP2 and UK local authority funds are among the backers of a new $3bn global agriculture fund.

New TIAA-CREF fund will invest in “high quality farmland assets” across North America, South America, Australia and parts of Europe with a focus on major grain exporting regions.

TIAA-CREF is expected to announce Tuesday that it has raised $3 billion for its second global farmland-investment partnership, exceeding its initial target of $2.5 billion.

Giant US investment fund TIAA-CREF expects Australia's ageing farmers and a lack of sons and daughters willing to inherit their farms will lead to large numbers of properties hitting the market over the coming decade.

Foreign investors own 10% of Australia's agricultural land. But that could soon rise thanks to two huge projects being developed in Northern Territory's Top End with the help of foreign investors.

The US sovereign wealth fund has approved a $200m allocation to TIAA-CREF’s Global Agriculture II fund, its first major commitment to the sector.