Ruane, Cunniff and Goldfarb has bought a 5.1% stake in BrasilAgro, which has a total landbank of more than 250,000 hectares - an area about the size of Luxembourg - in Brazil and Paraguay.
Land prices are up across Brazil, with prices in the Northeast up 7.5% over the past 12 month, BrasilAgro said.
Brazilian agriculture company BrasilAgro sold its Cremaq farm in Piauí for more than seven times what was paid for it nine years ago.
Chiquita Brands International received an unsolicited offer on Monday from two Brazilian companies, including private equity fund and farmland owner Safra Group.
BrasilAgro flagged the buoyancy of Brazil's farmland market by selling off part of its holding for the equivalent of $6,000 an acre – more than four times the price it paid six years ago.
BrasilAgro highlighted the gains to be made from Brazilian farmland by selling a second farm from its 170,000-hectare portfolio for a large gain.
BrasilAgro, which amassed some 170,000 hectares of land in less than four years, has turned seller, disposing of the first property which it bought for a price 10% higher than the start of the year.
Brazilian farm companies are in a race of investments with every major company making new acquisitions and major capital investments.
BrazilAgro owns close to 200,000 hectares of farmland in Brazil, said Elsztain. Cresud Sacifya, the biggest farmland owner in Argentina, holds 22.89 percent of BrasilAgro and operates the company.
