Silo storage on the One Tree portfolio

THE majority of the One Tree Portfolio in southern Queensland and northern NSW has been sold, raising $220 million for vendor Proterra Investment Partners, which listed the institutional grade asset more than a year ago.

Australian farming families have purchased the Umbercollie Aggregation and around 80 percent of the Jandowae Aggregation, with four parcels of land totalling 1762ha remaining.

Proterra listed the 23,595ha One Tree portfolio in July last year with expectations it would fetch more than $250 million.

Proterra Investment Partners was founded in 2016 as a spin-off from Black River Asset Management, a subsidiary of the US agricultural giant Cargill. The company, which is a private equity firm, was established to manage funds spun out from Black River, focusing on agriculture.

The holdings comprise two southern Queensland aggregations, the 7934ha Umbercollie, north-west of Goondiwindi, and the 9966ha Jandowae on the Northern darling Downs, as well as the 5694ha North Star Aggregation in far northern New South Wales.

The sale of the southern Queensland properties, along with the sale of the North Star Aggregation in March this year, have collectively sold for more than $220m – marking a major milestone in the One Tree Portfolio offering.

Across the portfolio, 92 percent of the land is predominantly self-mulching black brigalow arable soils, in a climate ideal for producing high-yielding wheat, barley, chickpea, canola, mung bean, cotton and sorghum crops.

The Umbercollie and North Star aggregations are entirely dryland, while Jandowae includes 585ha of irrigation.

Jumbuck wheat growing on the One Tree aggregation’s Goondiwindi country

LAWD senior director, Danny Thomas said while the New South Wales located North Star Aggregation sold to an offshore investor, the remaining portfolio had attracted considerable interest from the domestic market.

“The sales result for Umbercollie and the Jandowae Aggregation parcels reflects the strong appetite from family farming enterprises to expand and invest for the future, and it has been rewarding to see their engagement through the process,” he said.

“When LAWD brought the One Tree Portfolio to market, it was expected to draw local and global interest given it was an unparalleled institutional grade broadacre cropping opportunity. However, offshore investors are hesitating to commit to the Queensland market because of the foreign owner’s land tax surcharge,” Mr Thomas said.

He said LAWD agents were currently in negotiations with interested parties for the remaining four parcels of land in the Jandowae Aggregation, which will go to auction in October, if not sold before.

Proterrra managing director Becs Willson said while the process had taken longer than expected, splitting up the portfolio met market demand and drove increased returns.

Of the original 9966ha Jandowae Aggregation, just 1762ha remained. The four parcels of developed dryland cropping comprise 468ha Dewai, 389ha Oaklands, 768ha Eurangatuck and 137ha Crooks, all located near the Jandowae township.

Eurangatuck, Dewai and Oaklands have a range of infrastructure to support grain production, including machinery sheds and grain silos, as well as other storage facilities. Eurangatuck has a shearing shed and basic cattle yards, while Crooks has a 300-tonne grain silo.

Proterra Investment Partners

Proterra Investment Partners made its first foray into Australian agriculture in 2009 by buying into the Temora, NSW-based BFB, which merged with Daybreak Cropping to create Altora Ag.

Proterra’s initial acquisition for One Tree occurred in 2014 and continued until 2019, with its partnership operating model using the latest agricultural technology available and ensuring sustainable management practices.

Proterra began its scale-down of One Tree in 2019, when the Kinbeachie Aggregation was sold to Daybreak Cropping, and it listed two properties in the Jandowae aggregation, Encliffe and Glendaloch, which are still in the portfolio.

In 2021, Proterra sold Corinella Farms for more than $360m to exit the assets in western Victoria and South Australia’s South East. The 22,500ha portfolio was split up and sold to 26 different Australian purchasers representing local farming interests.