This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
GLOBAL interest is expected for Proterra Investment Partners’ One Tree broadacre cropping portfolio, with US private equity firm hoping for around $250 million from a strengthening institutional market that is acclimatising to higher interest rate levels.
The 23,595-hectare portfolio is an amalgamation of 21 properties that run along the border of NSW and Queensland, composed of the North Star aggregation (5,694 hectares) on the NSW side, and the Umbercollie aggregation (7,934 hectares) and Jandowae Aggregation (9,966 hectares) in southern Queensland.
More than 90% of the land across the One Tree portfolio is arable and made up of predominantly self-mulching black brigalow soils, with climate characteristics ideal for high-yielding wheat, barley, chickpeas, canola, mungbeans, cotton and sorghum production. The Umbercollie aggregation and North Star aggregation production systems are entirely dryland, while the Jandowae Aggregation offers 585 hectares of irrigation.
One Tree portfolio is available to purchase as a whole or as any combination of separate assets through LAWD’s Danny Thomas and Elizabeth Doyle.
“We’ll probably have corporates as well as locals (showing interest). If potential buyers are interested in splitting up the portfolio, we’re open to negotiating with buyers on any combination of separate assets. Locals could come in individually, or club together with neighbours and look at a whole aggregation – it’s whether or not it gets broken up and probably also contract conditions,” Doyle told Australian Property Journal.
She said institutional interest is “strong” at the moment.
“Parties are more acclimatised to where interest rates are sitting. We’ve got great weather conditions and commodity prices are favourable. The market should kick on and we hope to have a strong campaign,” she said.
“Parties are likely to come back after a quieter few months.”
LAWD indicated that it is open to negotiating any combination of separate assets as part of the One Tree sale process if buyers are interested in splitting the portfolio, similar to Proterra’s $360 million sale of the Corinella portfolio in Victoria and South Australia in 2021 to 27 different local purchasers.
Proterra managing director Becs Willson said the One Tree Agriculture portfolio “brings to market a geographically spread, well-developed scale operation where infrastructure investments have been focused in order to meet strategic customers’ requirements”.
Proterra’s initial acquisition for One Tree Agriculture occurred in 2014 and occurred over a five-year period. Its partnership operating model has transitioned individual farms into productive revenue-generating aggregations.
“Last summer set us up well. We have just under 17,000 hectares of well-established crops and this is looking to be our biggest winter cropping season ever,” she said.
The planting program is supported by investment Proterra made in building a silo complex capable of drying, blending and storing 32,000 tonnes of grain, which has given it access to contracts with key strategic partners.
Infrastructure improvements across the aggregation include numerous dwellings, high quality operational infrastructure and grain storage in excess of 48,500 tonnes combined.
Expressions of interest, close 12pm.
Proterra Investment Partners has been developing agricultural investments in Australia since its first investment into BFB Pty Ltd in 2009. It has exited several investments over recent years, including its majority stake in BFB Pty Ltd, the Corinella, and the Vaucluse portfolios.
The Vaucluse portfolio was sold late in 2022 for more than $100 million, in one of Tasmania’s biggest-ever property transactions.
