Sonoma County Employees Retirement Association (SCERA) has approved a $125m (€125.6m) commitment to an open-ended global agricultural fund managed by Fiera Comox, according to people familiar with the matter.
Fiera Comox told IPE Real Assets that the Fiera Comox Global Agricultural Fund, created in 2018, has assets under management valued at $1.2bn.
The fund’s 200,000 acres of assets are located in the US, Europe, New Zealand and Australia. Fiera Comox is also looking for its first assets in Canada.
The fund has so far invested in 14 different commodities including apples/cherries, almonds, maple syrup, cotton/grains, dairy farming and golden kiwis.
The global fund’s investment strategy involves acquiring existing core assets and developing new crops through joint ventures with the aim of generating gross returns of 10% to 12%.
SCERA already holds a $151m agricultural investment in its real assets portfolio by way of an investment in the UBS AgriVest Farmland Fund, according to the US county employees pension fund.
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