Canadian pension fund giant, PSP Investments, has broadened its $6.5 billion-plus Australian agricultural footprint again, taking a strategic share in one of Queensland's most successful egg businesses.
The Foreign Investment Review Board has approved PSP's acquisition of a strategic stake in prominent family-owned egg producer, Ellerslie Free Range Farms, based around Millmerran on the Darling Downs.
The joint venture deal will be PSP's ninth Australian agribusiness partnership in about eight years.
PSP, which has swiftly grown to be the biggest foreign investor in Australian agriculture, now owns a strategic interest in the egg business alongside the Hall family who founded Ellerslie with a single farm in the 1960s.
The investment follows what has become a proven formula for investment success for Canada's Public Sector Pension Board investment arm - teaming up with well established Australia farming family businesses and injecting long term capital into them to enable expansion.
Expansion often involves taking control of downstream processing opportunities.
The Hall's Ellerslie business is now one of Australia's largest egg producers and includes a 50 per cent ownership stake in the big Queensland egg processing and marketing brand, Sunny Queen.
It also owns half the Yallamundi Farm pastured-raised and organic eggs brand.
Montreal-based PSP's real assets managing director and global head of natural resources, Marc Drouin, said the investor's interest in Ellerslie was "very much aligned with our approach of investing alongside best-in-class, local operators who share our values".
Those values were built around long term horizons and commitments to sustainable farming.
Shared values
"In many cases, this results in us investing alongside farming families who have cared for their land and animals for generations," Mr Drouin said.
"That's what we have found in Ellerslie."
He noted the Hall family had not only built one of Australia's leading egg production operations, employing 400 staff, but also contributed to building one of the country's best known food brands.
PSP has insisted the transaction will not result in any changes to the Ellerslie business, its workforce or relationships with customers and suppliers.
However, Ellerslie chief executive officer, Greg Quinn, said while it would be business as usual for those working on and dealing with Ellerslie's day to day operations, he knew PSP Investments' global scale would help the company accelerate plans to significantly increase its cage-free production.
"I look forward to working with PSP Investments and I know we are absolutely like-minded in our shared commitment to the highest standards of quality, sustainability and animal welfare."
PSP Investments is one of Canada's largest pension investors, representing the superannuation interests of the military, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and federal civil servants.
It reported assets worth about $275b under management a year ago, including up to 10 per cent of its portfolio in agriculture forestry, and aquaculture activities worldwide.
The total PSP portfolio also spans private equity, real estate, infrastructure, natural resources and credit investments.
Canadians diversify
Its enthusiasm for Australian agriculture has been increasingly shared by other Canadian pension funds diversifying their asset bases here, including the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, via its AustOn Corporation, the Alberta Investment Management Corporation (AIMCo) and Quebec's QDPQ.
PSP's interest began in 2015 when it took a stake in Central Queensland's Hewitt Cattle Company at Theodore, which two years later grew to include the Cleaver's Organic brand and its parent company, Arcadian Organic and Natural Meat Company.
The Hewitt family's cattle business has since expanded from four properties to more than 20 aggregations stretching from northern NSW, across Queensland and west beyond Alice Springs, and now also includes lambs and pigs.
In a similar strategy, PSP teamed up with the management at pioneering Moree-based pecan orchard and nut processing business, Stahmann Farms, in 2017.
The NSW operation has since expanded dramatically into walnuts and macadamias as Stahmann Webster, with farms stretching from Tasmania to Bundaberg in Queensland.
Investment in the Webster agricultural business also led to a joint venture with Moree's Robinson family's Australian Food and Fibre's large scale cotton and grain cropping operations across NSW.
The AFF connection subsequently grew to include Auscott's five NSW gins from Boomi to Hay and cotton marketing operations in 2020 and 2021, also making it Australia's biggest cotton grower.
Other PSP partnerships include:
Altora Ag's 153,361 hectares of grain cropping activities over 65 properties from Western Australia to Queensland, plus 450,000 tonnes of grain storage and logistics facilities and 35,000 pigs.
Aurora Dairies' 54 farms spanning 23,000ha in Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand, milking more than 280 million litres a year.
Southern Premium Vineyards, established in 2020, which owns or manages more than 90 winegrape holdings in the Barossa Valley, Adelaide Hills, McLaren Vale, Clare Valley, Limestone Coast and NSW Riverina.
Fresh Country Farms' $2b-plus horticultural and viticultural operations, including almonds, avocados, citrus, mangoes, wine grapes, table grapes, berries and glasshouse tomatoes and cucumbers in Queensland, Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia, plus four citrus farms in Spain.
The Fresh Country Farms business includes a minority holding in fruit and vegetable growing and wholesaling business, Perfection Fresh, with the Simonetta family.
PSP's various irrigation water interests in coastal Queensland and the Murray Darling Basin are also reportedly worth more than $1b.
Andrew Marshall
Andrew Marshall is the group agribusiness writer for ACM's state agricultural weeklies and websites. He is a former editor at The Land and has worked in various Rural Press group roles in Canberra, North Richmond (NSW) and Toowoomba (Qld).
Andrew Marshall is the group agribusiness writer for ACM's state agricultural weeklies and websites. He is a former editor at The Land and has worked in various Rural Press group roles in Canberra, North Richmond (NSW) and Toowoomba (Qld).
