Australia

The intensifying US-China trade war, plus our comparatively cheap agricultural land are among key reasons overseas investor groups have ramped up buying interest in rural Australia this year.

The university’s holdings in developing markets have proved to be more trouble than they’re worth.

The Australian farming business BFB Pty Ltd, with its portfolio of 28 farms covering 48,753 ha, will be pitched to Australian superannuation funds and offshore sovereign wealth investors.

One Tree Agriculture is owned by private equity fund manager, Proterra Investment Partners, which was spun off in 2016 as an investment advisory and private equity fund manager by Cargill’s Black River Asset Management.

The UK remains the largest foreign owner of Australian farmland, followed by China and the US, according to the Foreign Investment Review Board 2016–17 Annual Report.

Rising demand for leased farmland has convinced agricultural asset manager Growth Farms Australia to launch a 10-year investment fund which will buy mid-sized farming properties and lease them to primary producers.

The promises that helped a Chinese firm secure government approval for the controversial purchase of Australia’s largest dairy farm were not “legally binding”, according to Treasury officials.

The Weekly Times has compiled a list of more than 900 properties, and their owners, who range from family farms to domestic and international corporate and investment institutions. The result? The big are getting bigger.

“I’ve got strong interest from Canada, the United Kingdom and Dubai and they want to come out now and have a look around," says the owner of the largest semi-contiguous cropping aggregation to be offered in Australia’s history.

The hefty mark-up for the 5.5 million ha property could leave foreign bidders in the box seat, testing the government's appetite for foreign ownership less than two years after it rejected China-led bids for an energy grid and agricultural company. energy grid and agricultural company.

A mass board resignation at the Chinese firm that bought Australia’s largest dairy farm has fuelled concerns it may not fulfil its promises of local investment and environmental protection.

Tokyo-based Nippon Life Insurance Company makes its first investment in a farmland investment fund through a US$92.5 million investment in an overseas farmland investment fund managed by Hancock Natural Resources Group