$444 million Aussie agricultural portfolio changes hands
An ASX-listed real estate funds manager has pulled off a second major farmland coup in as many weeks, snapping up a portfolio of 22 properties in an off-market deal.
An agricultural property portfolio housing some of the nation’s leading agribusinesses at a value of almost $450m, has changed hands in an off-market deal.
ASX-listed Australasian real estate funds manager Centuria Capital Group has secured the management rights to the unlisted agricultural real estate fund, Arrow Primary Infrastructure Fund, increasing its agricultural portfolio value to a whopping $1.3bn.
The deal involves Centuria acquiring agriculture fund manager, Arrow Funds Management, which is the responsible entity for APIF and its stapled operating fund, Arrow Operations Trust.
Acquired via an off-market deal, APIF comprises a portfolio of 22 properties worth $444 million with a 12.7-year WALE (Weighted Average Lease Expiry), as at June 30 this year.
Some assets in the APIF are leased to several leading Australian agribusinesses including Baiada Poultry Group, Select Harvests, Nutrano Group, Pace Farms, and SunPork Group.
Established by Arrow Funds Management, the APIF comprises poultry farms, a pork fattening facility, almond and macadamia orchards, mango orchards, dried fruit vineyards and an organic glasshouse.
“This acquisition adds further scale and operational expertise to Centuria’s agriculture division. Centuria’s growth in agricultural real estate has been part of a deliberate strategy to diversify into high conviction alternative real estate sectors, which we commenced in the post-COVID period and have subsequently scaled beyond $1 billion of AUM (assets under management),” Centuria joint chief executive John McBain said.
“Centuria has an established record for successfully integrating complementary funds management businesses and we look forward to offering APIF’s private clients the same high level of service they have enjoyed in the past.
“Centuria has a mature private client investor base, which has supported its funds management platform for more than 30 years and we are experienced in understanding and responding to the specific needs of private investors.”
The Arrow Funds deal comes just a week after Centuria announced they had bought Australia’s largest glasshouse facility, located 50km north of Adelaide at Two Wells, via an off-market transaction worth $168m from Fresh Country Farms of Australia.
Fresh Country Farms of Australia is a horticultural investment business owned by the largest foreign investor in Australian agriculture, Canadian pension fund manager, PSP Investments.
