Proterra Investment Partners has today brought to market three portfolios of premium agricultural assets, Vaucluse (4,448ha), One Tree (23,594ha) and Racecourse (14,425ha), for sale by Expression of Interest through rural property and advisory firm Land, Agribusiness, Water and Development (LAWD).

Spanning Tasmania, NSW and Queensland, operations across the portfolios include grain, sugarcane, horticulture and livestock production, while extensive funds have been invested in improvement and transformation across each of the assets.

LAWD Senior Director, Danny Thomas, said he expected the diversity of the three offerings to draw both local and international interest at a time of unprecedented demand for farmland.

“Proterra has done an outstanding job to strategically aggregate land and water assets and to transition these into highly productive aggregations, now representing more than $400 million in value, across wide-ranging geographical areas and commodities,” Mr Thomas said.

“Given these factors, we expect the different portfolios to appeal to diverse categories of investors and are foreseeing a very high level of enquiry given the global demand for assets of this quality in this class.”

Proterra Managing Director, Becs Willson, said the successful sale of the Corinella Farms cropping portfolio in Victoria and South Australia in 2021, which secured $360 million for investors, had led to the decision to bring forward Proterra’s 10-year exit strategy from Australian farm assets.

“It is a great time to capitalise on the existing strong market while there is insatiable appetite from investors who want to enter or expand in the agriculture space,” Ms Willson said.

“We have spent the last eight years building these highly productive agricultural operations and, ideally, they are not assets you would want to sell. However, the short-term nature of our investment fund combined with high commodity prices and the calibre of the assets, presents us with an opportunity to continue our track record of strong returns to our investors.”

Vaucluse

Located in Tasmania’s Midlands, Vaucluse is the result of the amalgamation of two neighbouring properties, transformed to feature extensively developed irrigation land, including centre pivot and linear irrigation (2,151ha) and hard hose traveller irrigators (447ha), with the balance made up of dryland cropping and grazing land.

Originally purchased with minimal water infrastructure, Ms Willson said Proterra had focussed on developing Vaucluse to be one of the State’s largest grain producers.

“Operating a five-year crop rotation across the farm, we have established Vaucluse as a high-calibre, large-scale cereal producer to benefit from strong demand from the Tasmanian livestock and aquaculture industries in an operating environment where there is limited local production,” Ms Willson said.

“By investing heavily in water infrastructure and agronomics, we have significantly improved yields, while the construction of a 5,424t grain storage facility has further allowed us to extract a premium price by holding grain on behalf of customers and delivering throughout the year to guarantee a consistent high-quality product.”

Other rotation crops, include potatoes, poppies, carrots, and hemp.

“While these are only auxiliary to the cereal operations, the diversification means in any given season there will be at least one commodity in exceptionally high demand, making the asset an excellent hedge,” Ms Willson said.

Adding to its value, the property is home to historical buildings, offices, and modern agricultural infrastructure, including 10-bedroom Vaucluse Homestead, and a circa 1832 five-bedroom Glen Esk Homestead.

Mr Thomas said Vaucluse presented a highly-diverse property and water-secure foot holding in Tasmania, with substantial water entitlements totalling 15,273ML and 9,000ML capacity water storages.

“This level of water security provides abundant opportunity for summer and winter cropping, while its fertile soils, ideal climate conditions and efficient irrigation systems also provide an outstanding prospect to be further developed into a vineyard enterprise,” Mr Thomas said.

Expression of interests close 4pm (AEST), 28 April 2022.

One Tree

The aggregation of 21 individual holdings across major production zones including Goondiwindi and Jandowae, Queensland, as well as North Star, NSW, has resulted in 23,594ha institutional-grade cropping asset, One Tree.

With self-mulching black brigalow soils, the One Tree group of properties produces high-yielding wheat, barley, chickpeas, fava beans, cotton and sorghum.

Mr Thomas said the portfolio would appeal to a range of buyers, including local farming families looking to expand their operations.

“The scale and geographic spread offered by One Tree is very special, with a lot of time and effort having been spent strategically aggregating land and water to create this A-grade institutional portfolio.

“While, One Tree has been developed with an institutional buyer in mind, we are expecting strong bids from farming families, and can accommodate multiple transactions in this deal, as we did with Corinella Farms, if required.”

Ms Willson said future owners would benefit from Proterra’s corporate investment in maximising arable land.

“We have invested in extensive development to transition land from grazing to prime broadacre cropping, and combined properties to grow efficiencies for corporate agriculture,” she said.

More than 48,000t of combined grain storage has been added across the portfolio, with all properties positioned in close proximity to commodity processing facilities.

Expression of interests close 4pm (AEST), 5 May 2022.

Racecourse

Currently utilised predominately for large-scale irrigated and dryland sugarcane and beef production, Racecourse spans three aggregations totalling 14,425ha in the Clairview and Mackay regions of Queensland.

Ms Willson said since purchasing the Mackay region’s largest continuous use sugarcane farm in October 2013, Proterra had since built the Racecourse portfolio through acquisition of cattle properties for conversion back to sugarcane production.

“We’re very proud of what we have achieved with Racecourse. We have employed sophisticated agronomic methods and best industry practice across the portfolio to become one of the largest private producers of sugarcane in Australia,” she said.

“Additionally, the portfolio was one of the first in Australia to achieve a globally distinguished Bonsucro accreditation, which recognises enterprises operating to stringent sustainable sugarcane production practices.”

The portfolio benefits from significant water entitlements, delivered through extensive flood, centre pivot and lateral move irrigation infrastructure. On-farm water storage holds up to 2,140ML capacity.

Racecourse is positioned close to major commodity processing facilities and ports, including sugar mills at Sarina (Plane Creek Sugar Mill), Proserpine (Wilmar Sugar), Farleigh, Marian and Mackay (Mackay Sugar) at the Mackay Harbour, which is regarded one of the world’s largest bulk sugar terminals.

Mr Thomas said in addition to highly efficient sugarcane production, there was the opportunity to develop the portfolio for high-value permanent crops.

“Racecourse has undergone significant investment in developing the land beyond grazing pastures, and there is a natural evolution in that region from sugarcane into macadamia production,” he said.

Expression of interests close 4pm (AEST), 5 May 2022.

Still in the market

While the sale of these portfolios will conclude Proterra’s existing ownership of agricultural assets in Australia, the investment firm will seek out new opportunities to transform agricultural operations and land in the future.

“We believe we have a unique approach in this asset class in terms of our operating models, including equity partnerships with local growers to help build and grow these businesses from the ground up,” Ms Willson said.

“We also now have a track record in executing profitable exit strategies with our investors at the forefront of our timing and are hoping to replicate this unique model across the Australian agriculture industry.”

For more information on the sale of Vaucluse, One Tree and Racecourse contact Danny Thomas, +61 439 349 977 and Elizabeth Doyle, +61 400 102 439.