Farmland Reserve’s subsidiary Alkira Farms, with the support of Australian agriculture manager Warakirri Asset Management, has acquired a broadacre cropping portfolio in southern Queensland.
The value of the Worral Creek portfolio was not disclosed but it is understood that the asset changed hands at “greater than A$300m” (€184m).
Worral Creek is spread across five properties, totalling around 26,000ha and a mix of irrigation and dryland cropping in a traditional grain and cotton growing region.
The partners have established Solterra, a new cropping business, to oversee Worral Creek under Adrian Goonan, Warakirri’s investment director, agriculture.
Goonan said: “Worral Creek provides a turnkey large-scale enterprise, with exceptional irrigation infrastructure and water security via a large number of water entitlements and storages, making it an ideal foundation asset for Alkira’s investment in Australian agriculture.
“The current vendors [Robert and Jennie Reardon] have been very astute farmers, acquiring and developing a world-class portfolio of farms and a rare and strategically valuable water portfolio over the past three decades.”
Farmland Reserve CEO Doug Rose said: “We’re pleased to be working with Warakirri, a premier, respected leader in Australian agriculture. We look forward to a productive association with them in the years ahead.”
Warakirri manages more than 200,000ha of Australian agricultural land across nearly 90 property aggregations for institutional and wholesale investors, valued at more than A$3bn.
Farmland Reserves, the US$265bn (€239.4bn) agriculture investment arm of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, owns approximately 370,000ha of farmland across Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Florida.
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