Agribusiness may benefit from new financing option
Amid legislative discussions for the creation of investment funds aimed at the agricultural industry (Fiagro), the Brazilian market is starting to see strategies focused on the sector reaching Exchange B3. The bill, passed by the Chamber of Deputies at the end of 2020, is among the priorities of the economic agenda sent by the government to the new leaders in Congress.
After the listing of Riza Asset Management's Terrax on the stock market last year, Santa Fé Investimentos will start to talk to investors about the offering of a portfolio that will invest in plots of land. Quasar Agro and BTG Pactual Agro Logistics are examples of portfolios focused on the sector trading on B3, but they are linked to agribusiness infrastructure and storage.
In the case of the Santa Fé's fund, the mandate will be the effective purchase of land. The return will come from leasing, appreciation of assets and revenues from carbon credit.
The offering is also boosted by a bill in Congress that provides for authorizing foreigners to buy land, which would help these portfolios. Yet the matter is seen as controversial by the asset managers themselves.
With R$400 million in funds, Santa Fé's real estate fund starts a new line of business for the firm, which was founded as a family office, then focused on stocks and now has been investing in expansion. This front comes from the group's expertise in agribusiness, especially from partner Sergio Battistella Bueno, responsible for the family's land assets.
The firm expects to raise up to R$1 billion in a first tranche, setting up the fund by the end of the first half, says Fabio Focaccia, a partner hired recently as investment strategist who previously worked for J.P. Morgan. "The investor will be able to have a plot of land without owning a farm," he says.
The executive says there are around 15 mapped assets and a lot of raw material for future tranches. "The family has know-how in the production and cultivation of soy and knows the green belt of Matopiba (Maranhão, Tocantins, Piaui and Bahia). There is growth beyond the South and Southeast regions," he says. "There are REITs [Real Estate Investment Trusts] of land in the United States, but in Brazil no one has ever explored it."
Terrax uses the same logic of firms backing operations on urban real estate to generate income from rural properties following the example of the American Reits, says Paulo Mesquita, partner of Riza. ?The intention was to create a secure...
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