Swiss Asset Management Company Heralds New Era for Farmland Investment

ZURICH - Land Commodities Asset Management AG, the specialist farmland investment and asset management firm, today announced the formal launch of its new direct farmland investment brand targeted specifically at private investors.

Jeremy Miocevic, Head of Commercial and Legal Affairs, shed some light on the company’s thinking: “We’re living in a polarised investment environment. There’s the debate on inflation/deflation, stock market valuations and the sustainability of the economic recovery. These are big questions and not every investor buys into the green-shoots story. Many investors are prioritising wealth preservation, but still seeking competitive returns. Increasingly, institutional investors are achieving this with farmland, but until now investors at the lower end of the wealth spectrum have found it difficult to participate.”

Land Commodities focuses on farmland in low-risk, developed regions with an emphasis on value, income and security. Patrick Tobin, Head of Acquisitions, sees the current lull in market sentiment as a great opportunity to get involved, “Until recently you couldn’t switch on the news without hearing about the food crisis and booming commodity prices. One year on, whilst investors are preoccupied by the financial crisis, population continues to increase by 225,000 people a day and food prices are rising again despite the deflationary environment. The fundamentals are a long-term reality, so this will be a recurring theme for many years to come.”

To mark the launch, Land Commodities today released its first Global Agriculture & Farmland Investment Report available for download from the company website www.landcommodities.com. Recent reports on the state of global food security present contradictory views. The annual OECD-FAO report paints a typically upbeat picture but neglects to consider the effects of climate change and water scarcity, recently identified by the United Nations Environment Program as potentially the single biggest constraint to future supply. Chatham House’s “Feeding of the Nine Billion” report presents things in a different light, concluding that global food production is in the midst of a “perfect storm” of supply and demand pressures.

Land Commodities’ report aims to cut through these conflicting perspectives to provide an overview of global food security and its implications for the farmland investor.

Editors Notes

The Land Commodities team has over 60 year’s asset management and private-equity experience and over 30 years large-scale agricultural management expertise. The combined total career transactions of the team exceed EUR1 billion.

Jeremy Miocevic - jeremy.miocevic@landcommodities.com - +41-4420-55-970

Source: Land Commodities Asset Management

Jeremy Miocevic - jeremy.miocevic at landcommodities.com - +41-4420-55-970