Brookfield lands $100m from Oregon for new Brazil agri fund

Brookfield Brazil Agriculture Fund II, a $700 million vehicle currently being raised by Canada’s largest asset manager, has landed a $100 million investment from the $70 billion Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund. The firm sealed the investment earlier this month according to recently released council minutes.

A spokesman for Brookfield declined to comment on the fundraising process, citing US regulations on the marketing of funds, but a source close to the firm previously told Agri Investor the fund had raised $300 million and was targeting a $500m close by this summer, with a hard cap of $700 million.

In April this year the $20 billion New Mexico State Investment Council announced it had invested $75 million in the fund. AgriLand Fund II, as the new fund is also known, will focus on investments in row crop land in Brazil and has a 10-year life span.

A spokesman for Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund told Agri Investor that the plan has a target 12.5 percent for alternatives and that its investment was motivated in part by a desire to “leverage Brookfield’s … broader real assets operating platforms.” He said the Brazil fund was attractive because “Brazil leads in the production of many crops, has natural competitive advantages in growing food, including abundant water supply, favourable weather conditions and scalable productive land.”

The fund is the successor to AgriLand Fund I, which closed in January 2011 on $330 million, short of its $400 million target. Brookfield committed $100 million of its own capital to its first fund, which was backed by institutional investors including the $10.4 bilion San Diego County Employees’ Retirement Association, which invested $75 million.

Brookfield Asset Management has more than $200 billion in assets under management and manages a range of funds including a suite of timberland funds which buys timberland assets across the US, Australia and Brazil.