Kansas-based Creekstone Farms has been sold by the US private equity firm after 12 years of ownership to Japanese grain trader Marubeni Corporation.
The business was sold by Louis Dreyfus Company to Helios' third Africa-focused fund, a $1.1bn vehicle closed in 2013.
The data provider reported a 1.63% total return on US farmland in the second quarter, outpacing both the previous quarter and the same period in 2016.
Senior investment manager Ryan Sullivan says demand for real asset investments will be strengthened as US investors seek inflation protection.
The use of subscription facilities by funds has seen its criticism, but the practice is not without its positives write Debevoise & Plimptons' Thomas Smith and Almas Daud.
Together with other DFIs, the World Bank affiliate will provide training to farmers in the east African nations as part of an effort to strengthen connections with local and international produce markets.
South Africa’s Western Cape ag sector is set to receive a boost, as the province’s investment promotion agency focuses on agri-processing as a means towards economic growth and job creation.
San Francisco-based Plenty has raised $200m from Japan’s SoftBank Group and other high-profile investors in what it calls ‘the largest agriculture technology investment in history’.
The World Bank’s private sector arm will provide equity and debt as a part of an effort to encourage a shift away from inefficient, environmentally harmful agricultural fertilizers in China.
The REIT paid some $13.6m for four contiguous farms at a time when tree nuts stand to benefit the most from increasing global middle class consumption.