Macquarie Group

Australia’s Macquarie Group has purchased a 49% stake in cotton farm Cubbie Station from a consortium led by Chinese conglomerate Shandong Ruyi for an undisclosed sum

According to asset managers, a window is emerging for institutional money to flow into agriculture due to change of ownership, notably in markets such as Australia and the US.

Mr Hornibrook, who was a former head of Macquarie Agricultural Funds Management, along with some members of his sales team, were found to have extracted sensitive commercial information from a rival fund.

Tim Hornibrook, head of Macquarie Agricultural Funds Management, obtained sensitive details about a competitor's profits, fee structure and returns by posing as a wealthy investor.

Investment bank Macquarie Group is buying two farms in Australia's "wheatbelt" bringing its total holdings in Western Australia to 45,000 ha.

Pension funds try to adopt a sustainability perspective when investing in farmland abroad, but there is not much consensus on what it means and how to measure it.

This year could see a surge in interest in farmland from investors with very little experience in this complicated asset class, reports Euromoney

The wave of fund investment in farmland has reached only a fraction of its potential, even after hitting up to $40bn, with the potential to hit $1,000bn as it gains a "natural home" in portfolios.

Agricultural land represents an $8.4 trillion market, of which institutional investors own about $30 billion to $40 billion, according to Macquarie Agricultural Funds Management.

Macquarie Group Limited looks to be moving in on more agricultural investments with the launch of a new fund to target dairy farms in Australia.

Macquarie Group's new farmland fund, which is targeting farms in Australia and Brazil, has purchased its first two properties in Australia worth a total of almost $40 million.

Company now manages farms on 3.6 million hectares and believes that, overall, US$25 billion of institutional capital has gone into the acquisition of farms.