On Monday, the company confirmed that an agreement was made for New Forests and Alberta Investment Management Corporation (AIMCo), on behalf of certain clients, to acquire Lawson Grains.
Lawson Grains is one of Australia’s leading grain growers and is comprised of a 90,500 arable hectare agricultural land estate across NSW and Western Australia.
“We are delighted to have reached an agreement for the sale of Lawson Grains, which we are proud to have built on behalf of our investors over the past 10 years,” Macquarie Asset Management head of agriculture, Liz O'Leary, said.
“This transaction demonstrates the natural evolution of agriculture as an increasingly mature and attractive alternative investment class. It provides a vote of confidence for investors regarding the opportunity to invest in agriculture businesses and ultimately realise the investments in the same way they are used to doing in other asset classes.
“Realising this successful investment will enable our business to look ahead to the next opportunity.”
Lawson Grains will remain Australian managed under its ownership.
“Lawson Grains is a high quality and diversified agricultural business with an experienced management team,” New Forests’ senior managing director (Australia, New Zealand, US), Mark Rogers, added.
“We look forward to working with the management team to continue to build the business and add value.
“New Forests will bring its sustainability approach to Lawson Grains, managing for sustainable agricultural production and natural climate solutions including soil carbon and native revegetation and focusing on community engagement.
“This investment is a natural extension to New Forests’ landscape management approach, ensuring integrated production across Australia’s varied landscape, and backed by our valued client AIMCo.”
The completion of the acquisition is subject to approval by the Foreign Investment Review Board.
Neil Griffiths
Neil is the Deputy Editor of the wealth titles, including ifa and InvestorDaily.
Neil is also the host of the ifa show podcast.
