Farmland Partners raises $35m in equity offering

Farmland Partners, the New York Stock Exchange-listed real estate investment trust (REIT), has sold an additional 360,000 shares following a 3 million share offer launched last month. The new share sale brings the total raised by the firm to $34.9m.

The REIT was targeting the sale of up to 450,000 additional shares at $11 per share, following the initial share offer in July which brought in $31 million.

Baird, Stifel, Nomura and Wunderlich served as joint book-running managers for the offering. FBR, Janney Montgomery Scott and Feltl and Co. served as co-managers, according to a statement.

When Farmland Partners went public last year it was only the second stock exchange-listed REIT specialising in US farmland. Now others are looking at the same route to access the market.

Last month PIA Farmland, a California-based REIT, announced it was raising $15 million in equity in preparation for a public offering next year, when it will look to list on a national exchange.

And in June American Farmland Company filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to raise up to $100 million in an initial public offering. The REIT is likely to join Farmland Partners on the New York Stock Exchange.

Farmland has been seen as a good asset to diversify investors’ portfolios and as Agri Investor reported, US farmland values have defied predictions that the decade-long rise in farmland prices would come to an end.

As of 12 August 12, Farmland Partners’ portfolio comprises 122 farms with an aggregate of 71,355 acres hosting a variety of crops including corn, soybeans, wheat, rice, cotton, sunflowers, sorghum, edible beans, and blueberries.