Australian Financial Review | 26 June 2025
Duxton Capital to merge private funds into listed agriculture empire
by Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport
Duxton Capital is merging its unlisted agricultural empire into its main fund, creating an asset management business with a $298 million portfolio and – hopefully – ending many of the problems dogging the business.
In a term sheet sent to fund managers, the company’s listed Duxton Farms vehicle said it was planning a “transformational merger” and acquiring the assets held in the firm’s fruit, orchard, walnut and apiary businesses.
The transaction, and an associated $4 million raise, is being managed by Morgans and Bell Potter. Bids are due on Thursday afternoon.
The deal places a price tag of $102.9 million on the four smaller companies, with the shareholders to be paid in Duxton Farms shares at $1.25 apiece and up to 20 per cent or about $17 million cash. This cash component is to be partly funded by Thursday’s $4 million raising.
Duxton Capital is the agriculture, wine and pubs empire founded by former Deutsche Asset Management heavyweight Ed Peter and backed by prominent investors including the billionaire Oatley family, hedge fund manager Richard Magides and Phil King’s Regal Partners.
The Australian Financial Review has reported that some of the assets in the portfolio are not performing well. Duxton Water, another listed part of the group that owns water rights, is internalising its management. It’s unlisted funds, meanwhile, have been shedding assets and cutting jobs.
Term sheets sent to prospective investors on Thursday said the merger of the funds into Duxton Farms will leave the business with 180,000 hectares of revenue streams from cropping, dried fruits, apples, livestock, walnuts, pistachios, honey and apiary and pollination services.
Some of the unlisted funds are small. Duxton Walnuts, for instance, runs one orchard valued at about $31 million. Duxton Dried Fruits, on the other hand, is one of the country’s largest dried fruit growers, with 603 hectares.
Duxton Orchards is South Australia’s second-largest apple producer. It was responsible for more than 20 per cent of all production last season.
“Duxton Farms would become a significant domestic producer of walnuts and dried grapes,” a presentation said, adding that it would also “facilitate a more diverse share register and a larger investment platform”.
Known as Project Strawman, the transaction includes a $1 million share placement to sophisticated investors and $3 million raised from Peter and Magides. The company said that it would offer investors an opportunity to participate in a share purchase plan on completion of the merger.
The offer is at $1.25 per share – a 7.4 per cent discount to the last trading price. Duxton Farm shares have slid 10 per cent over 12 months.
--