Folium Capital puts orchard portfolio on market with expectations of $150m-plus sale

A US fund manager with an extensive global forestry and agricultural portfolio is selling three Australian almond and avocado orchards with expectations of $150m payday.

US-based private equity investor and fund manager Folium Capital has put three almond and avocado orchards on the market, targeting large-scale investors.

The properties in the Mildura, Griffith and Far North Queensland regions are coming to market from Folium’s Agricultural Fund 1 after seven years of development and optimisation.

Headquartered in Boston, Folium is seeking to sell the properties in a single transaction, which industry sources say may be worth more than $150m.

Colliers is running an expressions of interest campaign that closes on June 6. This will be followed by a final bid process for short-listed parties in July.

Folium Capital managing partner Oliver Grantham said he was excited to offer the well-developed properties.

“We have a long fund life and are very patient investors, but we like to reward patience with results and some liquidity, and this portion of our fund is ready to go to buyers looking for strong and diversified operating cash flows,” he said.

“What has been really satisfying is seeing how well our assets have stood up in the flood events in north Queensland and the Riverina over the last year. It speaks well of the careful planning and development phase.”

Folium was founded in 2016 by managing partners Mr Grantham, Alvaro Aguirre and Andy Wiltshire. It has a portfolio of farms and forests across four continents worth more than $US4bn ($6.1bn).

Mr Grantham said Folium was transitioning from development manager to operating manager, as the rest of the fund’s assets in Australia move into their peak productive years.

The portfolio consists of the 300ha Little Jalisco avocado orchard in Far North Queensland and the 580ha Thurla almond orchard in the Mildura region of western Victoria – which also has a residual 100ha wine grape vineyard that offers further room for almond expansion. Completing the package is the smaller 230ha Wallaroo almond orchard in the Griffith area of NSW, with younger plantings offering first harvests in 2025.

The Thurla almond orchard in the Mildura region.

According to industry sources, Australian permanent horticultural orchards, including all water rights in the location of the properties for sale, were worth about $140,000/ha, which equates to more than $150m. That does not include surplus underdeveloped land structures suitable for new enterprises.

In the biggest deal last year Canada’s PSP Investments, via Stahmann Webster, paid more than $100m for a 1000ha network of orchards and a processing plant owned by the Steinhardt family’s Macadamias Australia business near ­Bundaberg.

Colliers national director Duncan McCulloch said the Folium fund managers may consider individual property offers but the combination of three properties in three states was rarely available and likely to generate significant interest.

“You can clearly see how Folium have applied their global strategy on developing cost-competitive assets, and for targeting production to growing markets, in building this portfolio,” he said.

“The diversification of water sources, and across domestic and export markets for almonds and avocados makes this a particularly attractive offering.”

Mr McCulloch said last year was “a bit muted” as investors digested the rise in interest rates and almond prices hit cyclical lows in global trade.

“But this year already feels different, with almond prices on an upward price trend, and a widely-held view that California’s limited water resources would continue to constrain further growth in the world’s largest supply region,” he said.

“Consumption of avocados on a per capita basis is very low in most Asian countries … and even slow growth rates over such huge populations make for a very attractive future.”

Originally published as Folium Capital puts orchard portfolio on market with expectations of $150m-plus sale