Centuria grows its agriculture portfolio

Oksana Patron

16 December 2022

The Centuria-managed Agriculture Fund has acquired South Australia’s glasshouse assets, Sundrop Farms, for $70 million from the Morrison & Co Growth Infrastructure Fund, bringing its total agriculture assets under management (AUM) to $421 million.

Sundrop Farms was the second agriculture assets for Centuria Capital Group’s unlisted Agriculture Fund (CAF), after in June it secured a $177 million glasshouse estate in Warragul, Victoria,  subsequently driving CAF’s portfolio to $247 million in AUM.

“Agricultural real estate throughout Australia continues to experience strong tailwinds resulting from increasing global demand for Australian Agricultural products and technological innovations.

“This acquisition is another clear example of Centuria executing against its strategy of providing unlisted investors with access to high quality investment opportunities in the fragmented, agriculture sector and adding a new highly sought-after funds management vertical to the Centuria platform,” Centuria’s joint chief executive, Jason Huljich, said in the announcement made to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX).

The 246-hectare Port Augusta SA site provides four five-hectare glasshouses, a 1.4-megalitre (ML) reverse osmosis plant, a 1ML desalination plant, a 25ML storage dam, a packaging warehouse and a 12.5-hectare Concentrated Solar energy System (CSP) .

Huljich said that Centuria would continue to partner with “with experienced operators with a strong track record in agricultural innovation” in FY23 and beyond, with the aim of growing CAF into one of Australia’s largest unlisted, sector-specific agriculture funds.