Institutional investors want to own Australian farmland, but not necessarily livestock.
And this change in investor “appetite” is helping “shape the opportunities” in the national beef industry.
This is according to Gunn Agri Partners Managing Director Brad Wheaton.
Mr Wheaton told a Beef Australia seminar at Rockhampton, Queensland today that his business had two investment strategies worth more than $500 million in assets and commitments, which don’t necessarily own all – or any – of the livestock.
“If you think about it, it creates a great opportunity for entrepreneurial and innovative operators in this space,” he said.
“We see a trend continue where specialist operators lease or have flexi-lease arrangements, investors have the exposure they are looking for – owning the capital asset, capital growth – and the exposure of the livestock is undertaken by a specialist in that field.
“It’s a model we see in the US and Canada in a lot more depth.”
Gunn Agri Partners has introduced “diverse sophisticated investors to the reality of beef investment” during the past decade and now has investments amassing more than 70,000 head of cattle across 2 million acres.
This Beef Australia seminar heard how there are multiple new buckets of capital “ready to tip into agriculture”.
Agri Carbon Investments Chief Investment Officer Bindi Turner told the seminar about the growing interest in regenerative land systems and investors’ desire to generate a return through natural capital and capital growth.
Building a Ridgeback®: The benefits outweigh the cost. The results of the Rangers Valley trial, where partially covered housing in the final 100 days boosted cattle performance – as presented by Dr Melissa George at BeefEx’s R&D session.
ONE global food integrity expert has praised Australia’s feedlot quality assurance program, crediting it for market access benefits and assisting the entire global beef industry’s social licence.
