Crops

The North Carolina-headquartered firm surpassed its hard-cap to close its distinct credit vehicle at $325m and took approximately $115m in co-investments.

Senior managing director Marc Drouin says underused irrigation infrastructure helped make the C$204.5bn pension’s entry into European ag a highlight within natural resources deployments last year.

Returns of annual and permanent farmland remain divergent, with annual farmland seeing robust figures following favorable weather conditions and high farmgate prices.

The two firms had steadily outbid each other over the past several months, with a final offer price now one-third higher than the first bid submitted by Macquarie in November 2020.

Confidence among farmers is strong after a bumper 2020 winter crop, with hopes that a repeat this year will set the sector up for years to come.

The sale of Auscott, which attracted interest from a wide range of buyers globally, shows how large the pool of potential buyers for large-scale ag assets has become.

PSP has made another significant investment in Australian agriculture through its purchase of Auscott, adding to its acquisitions of BFB and Webster in 2019.

Post covid-19 challenges faced by small wineries in a market undergoing structural change were highlighted in a recent Rabobank report.

An improving commodity outlook and demand for passive investments meant annual cropland saw higher returns than permanent cropland in 2020 for the first time since 2001, said AgIS Capital.

The vehicle aims to raise A$500m in its first 12 months, providing loans of A$10m-$150m to counterparties across a variety of commodities.