This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
THE cropping arm of Canada’s pension fund giant PSP Investments has added to its substantial portfolio of farmland assets down under, picking up Western Australia’s Varley Farms in a circa $50 million deal.
Altora Ag is reportedly the new owner of 9,367-hectare Wheatbelt region asset, located south-east of Hyden. It now has 70 properties across NSW, Queensland, Victoria and Western Australia worth more than $7.5 billion.
PSP Investments is by value Australia’s largest farmland owner.
Varley Farms produces annual crops of wheat, barley, canola and lupins.
It was put to the market in the middle of 2023 as part of a near-43,000 hectare mixed-farming portfolio across Victoria’s Mallee region and southern Western Australia, named Project Jaal, which had expectations of circa $400 million. It was listed as a sale and leaseback opportunity by the Cowan family.
The leaseback was worth $16 million annually in rent per year on triple-net terms, with an initial 20-year term and two 10-year options.
Project Jaal was split across 26,834 hectares in Western Australia and 16,097 hectares in Victoria. The Cowan family has since decided to keep farmland near Western Australia’s Bedford Harbour and the Victorian Mallee.
LAWD and PwC were the selling agents.
At the beginning of last month, PSP Investments lobbed the 11,288-hectare Kinbeachie Aggregation in Queensland’s Border Rivers region to the market, hoping for more than $65 million.
Earlier in the year it was again on the buy side, acquiring large-scale South West Slopes dryland cropping property Timberscombe for $70 million from ASX-listed Dutton Farms.
Farmers are expected to see a more positive first half of 2025 amidst a generally favourable rainfall outlook and improving demand prospects, although a key concern is the geopolitical environment which is becoming increasingly unpredictable, according to Rural Bank.
On a quarter-on-quarter basis, income returns were -0.07% and capital growth was -1.10% for a total return of -1.17%, ANREV data has shown.
