Giant glasshouse in fresh hands through $168m deal
Australia’s biggest hydroponic glasshouse operation has changed hands in a $168 million deal, with local fund manager Centuria Capital taking over the South Australian facility from its owner, a Canadian pension fund giant.
The facility at Two Wells, around 50 kilometres north of Adelaide, is actually five individual glasshouses which together cover around 45 hectares.
It was sold by Fresh Country Farms of Australia, an entity run controlled by Canada’s PSP Investments which is one of the largest investors in Australia’s agricultural sector.
The deal comes as fund managers such as Centuria press increasingly into the agricultural and agribusiness sector as part of a broader strategy of holding alternative assets within commercial property.
The Two Wells facility is operated by Perfection Fresh, one of Australia’s largest privately owned fresh produce businesses. The Germantown Road facility specialises in growing snacking tomatoes and Qukes baby cucumbers as well as Calypso mangoes and broccolini. The produce is supplied to the major supermarkets, airlines and food service businesses.
“We are immensely proud to secure the Two Wells glasshouse facility – a trophy asset being the largest in Australia and the largest in the southern hemisphere,” Centuria’s chief investment officer Andrew Essey said.
“Centuria will continue to seek convincing investment opportunities across the agricultural property market, which harness persistent sector tailwinds,” he said.
Along with the five glasshouses, the facility includes a series of dams, a packing shed, and extensive irrigation over the entire 166-hectare site.
For Centuria, the latest deal adds to its existing exposure in agricultural real sector estate, expanding its portfolio by around 25 per cent to around $820 million including more than 150 hectares of glasshouse assets.
The facility will be held in the unlisted Centuria Agriculture Fund and comes with a long lease of more than 17 years to Perfection Fresh, with the operator also responsible for upkeep.
Along with ASX-listed Centuria, which has more than $20 billion in funds under management, considerable investment is being ploughed into the fresh produce sector, through fund managers such as Roc Partners and Macquarie Asset Management.
Private equity has driven headline deals such as Macquarie taking a $175 million controlling stake in Fresh Produce Group last December.
Other big operators in the fresh produce sector include Premier Fresh, created through the merger of LaManna and Premier Fruits and Costa Group, which was bought out by US group Paine Schwartz last year.
