Macquarie’s real estate arm has reclaimed pole position in the juicy tussle for Costa fruit orchard landlord Vitalharvest, after raising its offer for the ASX-listed trust for the second time on Wednesday to match a bid from Sydney private equity firm Roc Partners.

In a sign of the heady corporate appetite for prime agricultural assets, Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets (MIRA) invoked its matching rights after Vitalharvest’s responsible entity determined that Roc Partners’ $1.12 a share proposal for all units in the trust or alternatively all the trust’s assets for $322.2 million would result in a superior and binding offer.