Australia

Kilter Rural launches a $333.7 mln agriculture fund that will buy and develop 21,000 hectares of farmland in Southeastern Australia, creating biodiversity and carbon credits in the process.

In the latest deal, private equity-backed Stone Axe Pastoral has acquired the Moyhu Wagyu aggregation in Victoria’s King Valley from tax reform pioneer Bob Officer for about $25 million.

Kilter Rural was recently awarded a US$50m mandate from a large US financial institution to invest in Australian agriculture.

Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan has acquired a majority stake in Mitolo Family Farms-- Australia’s largest potato producer and owner of one of the country's largest horticultural land aggregations.

One of Australia’s largest carbon aggregators has added three properties to its Cape York portfolio and launched an agriculture company to manage the cattle side of its operation.

With favourable global economic conditions, including current high commodity prices, and with Australia’s exchange rate at sub USD 0.70, big properties around Australia are changing hands with overseas investors buying in.

The deal is the second $100 million-plus farming transaction involving offshore investors this year, highlighting the global appeal of prime Australian farmland.

Global agricultural investor Nuveen Natural Capital has joined a growing pool of institutional fund managers targeting Australia’s burgeoning macadamia sector, after buying one of the country’s largest orchards

For Minneapolis-based Proterra Investment Partners, the sale represents a second lucrative exit in its agricultural funds, after it sold a 22,386-hectare cropping portfolio in Victoria and South Australia last year.

A large Canadian pension fund which counts the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and defence force workers as members has acquired 35 vineyards in Australia from wine group Casella

Paine Schwartz has increased its stake in Australia’s top grower, packer, and marketer of fresh fruit and vegetables and owner of several blueberry farms in China and Morocco.

Minerva is 35% owned by the Saudi Agricultural and Livestock Investment Company, which already has 211,000 hectares of farmland and two mutton processing plants in Western Australia.