Institutional Investors

The $350m pension, which revamped its real assets policy last year, declined a timberland investment proposal in December.

The $56bn pension will likely put any future commitments to farmland or timber funds in a real assets bucket after a comprehensive strategic review later this year.

Fall Line Capital co-founder Eric O’Brien tells Agri Investor how university endowments became the main investors in the firm’s second vehicle, an evergreen fund that closed on $200m in 2016.

Park Madison Partners, a specialist in raising real estate capital, describes farmland as the 'least penetrated and underdeveloped' property sector, with potential productivity gains and attractive yield.

One-third of limited partners are willing to pay for deals where they are not an existing fund investor, according to a survey by Asante Capital Group.

The development bank’s cash infusion will help the Singaporean agribusiness trader invest in its existing operations in Egypt, Georgia, Poland, Turkey and Ukraine.

Speaking in the wake of Gladstone's purchase of a $6m almond orchard, MetLife agri finance boss Barry Bogseth said such cash injections could help mitigate adverse demographic trends in the countryside.

Agriculture has done well in the benign post-crisis environment created by central banks. But is it equipped to survive shocks?

The pension will work with the fund manager to deploy capital across the country with a long-term view.

Agri’s potential for non-correlated cash generation and a push into sustainable investment mean the asset class could pass a tipping point next year, according to Insight’s Detlef Schoen.