UK pensions funds and asset management companies potentially have up to £37 billion invested in ‘land grabs’ worldwide, according to a report published by Friends of the Earth.
- Blue & Green
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12 June 2014
Alberta pension fund pays $415 million for more than 1500 square miles of forest in Australia to be converted to timber plantations and agriculture.
- Dow Jones
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28 January 2011
A new Swedwatch report shows a lack of transparency and inadequate auditing of ethics and environmental impacts in AP2’s investment in farmland in Brazil. For business reasons, the investment is surrounded by a high level of secrecy, which makes scrutiny from the outside impossible.
The funds will acquire farms and farmland assets, including permanent crops, arable, and pastoral farmland, and lease to experienced operators across the focused geographical regions of Australia and New Zealand.
Australian farmland is an appealing asset class to Canadian-backed investment group, Warakirri Asset Management, with the firm having launched a new fund which expects to raise $500 million.
Created specifically for domestic and offshore institutional investors, the fund has already secured significant cornerstone funding from one of the largest pension funds in Europe
Swedish pension buffer fund AP2 and US pension fund manager TIAA-CREF have formed a joint venture to invest at least US$500 million in farmland in the US, Australia and Brazil.
- Global Pensions
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25 May 2011
Europe’s biggest pension fund manager is set to expand its Asia portfolio "primarily with additions of co-investments, joint-ventures and investor-led platforms with a focus on farmland and timberland".
- Asian Investor
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21 October 2019
UK-based SilverStreet Capital has received about $198 million in commitments to its Africa-focused fund from the Danish pension fund Pensionskassernes Administration (PKA) and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC).
- Private Equity Africa
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01 July 2011
Australia's deputy prime minister on Tuesday urged the country's A$1.8 trillion (US$1.3 trillion) pension fund industry to boost its investment in agriculture as the sector gears up to meet strong demand from Asia.
New animated video shows how a global farmland fund, managed by US financial giant TIAA-CREF, used a complex company structure to avoid restrictions on foreign investment in farmland in Brazil.
A coalition of environmental, human rights and family farm organizations delivered a letter with over 100,000 signatures to pension fund management company TIAA, expressing concerns over the company’s investments in farmland and palm oil.
It is the first time the US pension fund has awarded a separate account for the asset class, although in February it announced it was investing $125m in International Farming Corporation’s US Farming Realty Trust III.
The sale of two New Zealand dairy farms to a Canadian government pension fund has been approved by the Overseas Investment Office.
Canada's Public Sector Pension Investment Board, got a green light to buy a medium-sized New Zealand dairy farm and a neighbouring dairy support block in Canterbury for $17.7 million just ahead of tougher requirements on land sales to foreign buyers.
Roger Ferguson, chief executive of TIAA-CREF, says his firm is increasingly acquiring farmland in the US, Eastern Europe, Australia and Brazil as long term investments.
Passive indices have been replaced by new sophisticated active indices and pension fund managers like APG are investing in natural resources assets, including farmland.
Two Harvard-controlled LLCs have deeded over 7,104.74 acres of land in northern San Luis Obispo County, California for an estimated $120.14 million (based upon $132,159 paid in county real estate transfer taxes.)
Brazil's land agency and a state court have determined that pension fund manager TIAA and Harvard University’s endowment fund illegally acquired hundreds of thousands of hectares of farmlands in Brazil’s ecologically sensitive Cerrado region.
- AATR, Rede Social, GRAIN
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17 December 2020
Investors from Canada and the Netherlands have almost half of all foreign forest and farmland holdings in the USA. The Canadian holdings reflect investment by timber companies, while the Dutch holdings reflect pension fund investments.
A group of Riverina farmers is demanding answers from the federal government over the sale of BFB, a large diversified agribusiness in Temora, which is being sold by a US private equity investor to a Canadian pension fund.
Altamiran Ribeiro, a Brazilian land rights activist, told an audience at John Hopkins University about the land takeovers on behalf of corporations in Brazil and the long-term consequences on local communities and the environment.
- John Hopkins Newsletter
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25 October 2019
Un nouveau rapport du Oakland Institute dénonce le financement par plusieurs fondations, fonds de pension et trusts internationaux d’une société de plantations de palmiers à huile en RDC
The Swedish National Pension Fund is teaming up with US institutional investor TIAA-CREF to buy farmland in Australia.
- Stock & Land
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14 June 2011
The UK's Environmental Agency Pension Fund is still seeking a manager for a £245m ‘real asset' mandate, set to include £65m in forestry and farmland.
- Professional Pensions
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11 Mar 2013
Legendary waterfront warrior Chris Corrigan could soon have one of the world’s top investors — Canada’s Public Sector Pension Investment Board — as the main shareholder in his Australian listed agricultural company, Webster Limited.
In April 2021, the Netherlands-based Kempen Capital Management (Kempen) launched the SDG Farmland Fund – a new investment solution to offer institutional investors global access to farmland as an asset class.
The state’s retirement system invested heavily in a private land deal that allowed a foreign company to effectively ship Arizona’s scarce water supply overseas.
Saskatchewan’s move to freeze purchases of farmland by pension plans and foreign investors has ignited a debate over what’s best for the future of Canada’s bread basket.
- Globe & Mail
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19 April 2015
Swedish pension fund AP2 plans to conduct an external audit in response to criticism by Swedwatch for not disclosing the precise locations of its Brazilian farm holdings.