Real Assets

The vehicle will make investments in areas such as afforestation and sustainable land use in Asia, Latin America and Africa.

CEO Keir Renick says FarmOp’s loans to renting producers provide an entry point for large private lenders while servicing borrowers that fit awkwardly in the traditional ag banking system.

The investments amount to a 3.5x increase in the value of the pension’s forestry portfolio, which has been in place since at least 2017.

The pair’s collaboration with Sao Paulo-headquartered Klabin follows previous joint efforts focused on forestry markets in the US South and Chile.

NatWest Cushon’s responsible investment manager Martin Logan says the ‘primary driver’ for the pension's investment in the asset class is to ‘mitigate some of the carbon price risk that our equity portfolio is exposed to.’

Senior managing director Eric Menzer says the firm is watching how demand evolves before making a decision on the extension in Canada.

While the first two deals have both been in the US, as much as 40% of the vehicle’s portfolio could be made of Australia and New Zealand assets.

A 401(k) policy review, high-profile M&A activity and new product launches are accelerating farmland’s access to RIAs and high-net-worth capital.

Managing partner Rich Gammill says the crowdfunding platform will allow the firm to tap into the ‘strong interest in farmland from both high-net-worth individuals and RIAs’.

BTG Pactual’s Timberland Investment Group will manage an Americas-focused vehicle for the UK pension, which established an evergreen fund of one with Campbell Global last year.