New Mexico SIC approves $75m commitment to Brookfield Brazil AgriLand Fund II – exclusive

The $20.26 billion New Mexico State Investment Council has approved a $75 million commitment to Brookfield Asset Management‘s Brazil Agriculture Fund II.

This is the council’s second investment into an agriculture-related fund this year; in February it approved a $200 million commitment to TIAA-CREF Global Agriculture II, which invests in Brazil, Australia and US farmland.

Director of real return Geraldine Barlow described the new fund, which is targeting $500 million, as “a complementary opportunity to expand the exposure and diversification of agriculture for the real return portfolio in this asset class”, in a council investment committee meeting earlier this month. She added that it provides diversification to the TIAA-CREF allocation, and the fund’s consultant, Jack Koch of the Townsend Group, talked of the opportunity to own large-scale farmland and the Brazilian agriculture sector’s strong growth potential.

Brookfield’s Brazil AgriLand II will target the acquisition and conversion of low production farmland into higher and better uses and could reach a final close on $650 million – $700 million, according to the investment committee minutes.

The council would not comment on its future agriculture investing plans.