Macquarie Agriculture’s Lawson Grains sells to PE-firms at a valuation 'north of $550m'

One of Australia’s biggest grain farm businesses has sold to offshore interests for more than half a billion dollars.

Macquarie Agriculture, the nation’s second-biggest farmland investor, today announced it had sold its Lawson Grains portfolio comprising 105,000 hectares, or more than a quarter of a million acres, of cropping land in NSW and Western Australia, to Sydney-based global forestry investment manager New Forests and Canada’s Alberta Investment Management Corporation.

The Lawson Grains portfolio — comprising more than 70 properties purchased since its launch in 2012 — was listed amid much fanfare in March with expectation of $500-600m. The Weekly Times understands the sale price is north of $550m.

The sales process, conducted on an expressions of interest basis by specialist rural property agency LAWD, attracted widespread domestic and international buyer interest.

The Weekly Times understands it is Alberta Investment Management Corporation’s first direct investment in agriculture in Australia. In 2011, it was involved in the purchase of the Great Southern Plantations assets for $415m.

Lawson Grains was one of three of Macquarie Group’s three agriculture-specific investment funds, along with Paraway Pastoral and Viridis Ag. Their combined assets were valued at more than $3bn.

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Based at Albury in NSW, Lawson Grains comprises 10 aggregations in Western Australia and NSW with about 90,000ha of arable land which last year produced more than 250,000 tonnes of grains and oilseed.

Its NSW holdings include the 10,549ha Uah at Forbes, the 10,052ha Grassmere at Oaklands, the 8270ha Borambil at Rand and the 7490ha Kealandi at Moree, which was Lawson’s first purchase in 2012. The West Australian portfolio includes Hakea at Esperance (12,734ha), Gunnadoo at Jerramungup (11,259ha), Wongan at Wongan Hills (10,770ha), Jerry South at Jerramungup (5983ha), St Leonards at Wongan Hills (5698ha) and Walyoo at Yathroo (5620ha).

According to its website, Lawson’s switched its focus in 2017 from property acquisition to “driving performance across the business” with latest technology, practices, processes and expertise adopted to optimise productivity.

It has been a huge year for rural property sales in Australia with Canada’s PSP Investments paying more than $500m for the Auscott Limited cotton growing and processing business in NSW.

Last month, Sydney-based private equity firm ROC Partners purchased a major stake in the $120m Murray River Land business, which comprises about 60 mostly former dairy farms covering 10,000 hectares between Numurkah in northern Victoria and Tocumwal in southern NSW.

Source: The Weekly Times