Australia

A US institutional investor has awarded a US$50m mandate to Australian sustainable farmland manager Kilter Rural to invest in agriculture and water assets.

Van Dairy, formerly Moon Lake Investments and Van Diemens' Land Company before that, has attracted a lot of attention over its foreign ownership and farm operations.

Two Dutch insurance companies have invested in a fund buying farmland in Australia, Denmark, Portugal, New Zealand, and the US.

New Forests and Alberta Investment Management Corporation have agreed to buy Lawson Grains, which owns a 90,500 hectare agricultural land estate across New South Wales and Western Australia.

Australia’s second-biggest farmland investor has sold its Lawson Grains portfolio comprising 105,000 hectares of crop land in NSW and Western Australia to Sydney-based global forestry investment manager New Forests and Canada’s Alberta Investment Management Corporation.

Major Brazilian meatpacker Minerva Foods and part-owner Saudi Arabia's SALIC have bought two sheep-focused meat processors in Western Australia for almost $48 million with plans to expand their operations.

A controlling interest in the Murray River Land Trust Portfolio of about 15,000ha "owned, contracted and optioned land" near Strathmerton has been taken by a private equity firm.

Investment platform iPartners is pushing into the agricultural sector, launching a $20 million fund to acquire Australian farmland for protected koala habitat to generate returns through its use as a biodiversity offset.

CBRE Agribusiness managing director David Goodfellow says large institutional buyers have a head start on family businesses.

Agriculture, long overlooked as a handy defensive investment space by fund managers more interested in infrastructure, commercial real estate and shopping centres, has become the focus of big spending activity of late.

Global investment company Proterra Investment Partners is divesting its Australian farm portfolio – the Corinella Group Pty Ltd consisting of 49 farms across southeastern Australia with expectations of fetching A$350 million.

An Australian cattle farm was used by Chinese-owned company United World Enterprises to lure retirees into investing up to $46 million for fake agritourism and aged-care village schemes.