Want to Invest in Farmland? Maybe you should follow George (Soros that is)

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Soros Backed IPO Adecoagro (AGRO) Provides Hard to Find Access to Farmland (Fund My Mutual Fund)

Posted by TraderMark at 9:10 AM  TweetThis

No matter what you think of George Soros' politics, he has his nose in all the right places in the investment world.  I've long bemoaned the lack of avenues to invest in farmland for the regular investors - indeed aside from Argentina based Cresud (CRESY), I don't think there is another option - but this week's slate of IPOs brings us Adecoagro (AGRO).  This sort of thing won't be hot money, but if you give me a 40 year horizon, I say arable land (or water) will be the best investments on earth.   And I'm not the only one:

• [Jun 5, 2008: NYTimes: Food is Gold, So Billions Invested in Farming]
• [Jun 14, 2008: Bloomberg: Farmland Reaps Bonanza for TIAA]
• [Jun 2, 2009: The Economist - Outsourcing's 3rd Wave - Buying Farmland Abroad]
• [Dec 31, 2009: Bloomberg - Ethopian Farmers Lure Investor Funds as Workers Live in Poverty]

Meanwhile I am sure all the attention in the short term will go to the hype machine that is the IPO of Digital Media.

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The English website can be found here

Adecoagro is currently one of the leading companies in the production of food and renewable energy in South America. Present in Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, our main activities include theproduction of grains, rice, oilseed, dairy products, sugar, ethanol, coffee, cotton and cattle meat.

Since its creation in 2002, the company´s growth was based on the implementation of a sustainable efficient production model, working on its own land and managing risk through diversification.

Unfortunately, there is a lot of exposure to the politically unstable country of Argentina, but that has not stopped investors from giving Cresud a rich valuation. 

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