AAM’s flagship Diversified Agriculture Fund is seeking more capital to deploy into its northern Australia cattle assets and to expand its softwood timber businesses.
The imbalance between supply and demand that is partly a hangover from the global financial crisis is expected to narrow over the next decade and timber prices should benefit, says Domain Timber Advisors’ Jack Izard.
The Dutch development bank was entrusted with the capital by the UK government and will be allocated across three to five funds operating in tropical forest regions.
Criterion Africa Partners’ managing director George McPherson says Fund I has ‘underperformed’ so far and presented the firm with several learning outcomes that will be put into practice in Fund II.
Data analyzed by Digital Agriculture Services found that Queensland saw the most agricultural land affected by fire, but timber plantations in New South Wales and Victoria were also hit hard.
Private softwood plantations have also been affected by the Australian bushfire crisis, although the exact areas affected and the scale of the damage remain unknown.
The ACCC raised its strongest concerns over a bid by New Forests, which dropped out shortly afterwards, paving the way for the competition watchdog to approve Global Forest Partners’ bid.
The two managers’ offers for assets owned by Resource Management Service have raised concerns with the ACCC over a potential reduction in export services.