Australian Food & Fibre (AFF), a joint venture between Canadian pension investment manager PSP Investments and the Robinson family, an Australian farming enterprise, has acquired cotton producer Auscott.
AFF is buying Auscott, including properties, ginning, warehousing and marketing operations from JG Boswell Company in a deal believed to be worth around A$500m (€320m).
PSP Investments’ senior managing director and global head of natural resources, Marc Drouin, said: “AFF’s acquisition of Auscott represents a significant milestone, and is the latest in a series of strategic initiatives the company has launched and delivered on since the inception of our joint venture.”
AFF managing director, Joe Robinson, said: “Auscott’s six decades of operation in the sector reflects Australia’s leading position on the global stage in high-quality cotton, and the importance of a long horizon for value creation.”
Robinson said the combined (Auscott-AFF) group would continue to be very supportive of the communities in which it currently operated.
AFF is an irrigated row cropping company headquartered in Moree, northern NSW. In 2017, it formed a joint venture with PSP Investments to expand its operations.
Ashley Power, CEO and managing director of Auscott, said: “The bringing together of Auscott and AFF creates significant production, processing and marketing scale across this integrated supply chain.”
James W Boswell, chairman and CEO of JG Boswell Company, said: “Our company has been involved in the development of Auscott for three generations. It has been a big part of our lives since 1963.”
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