July 25, 2023

By Lynda Kiernan-Stone, Global AgInvesting Media

Nuveen, the investment arm of TIAA with $1.1 trillion in AUM as of March 31, 2023 and operations in 27 countries, has expanded its partnership with global fintech platform iCapital, essentially providing greater access to alternative investments for the wealth management industry by offering investors and financial advisors an opportunity to allocate capital to globally diversified agricultural assets. 

Founded in 2013 and headquartered in New York with offices in Zurich, London, Lisbon, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Toronto, iCapital is the world’s leading global fintech company driving the alternative investment marketplace and transforming how the wealth management, banking, and asset management industries access private market investments for their high-net-worth clients.

As of May 31, 2023, the company services more than $159 billion in global client assets, of which nearly $29 billion is from international investors across more than 1,288 funds. 

Adding to these fund offerings is the Nuveen Global Farmland Fund, managed by Nuveen Natural Capital, the largest manager of global farmland with $12.4 billion in AUM, which primarily invests in farmland and related businesses in the U.S., Australia, and beyond, producing a variety of both annual and permanent crops geographically diversified across both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.

The fund’s asset mix currently includes wine grapes in Napa, Monterey, Sonoma, and Madera counties in California; row crops across the U.S. including corn, soybeans, rice, cotton, and vegetables; and horticultural crops such as almonds, pistachios, and raisin grapes. 

And through the expansion of the partnership between Nuveen and iCapital, this will be the fourth Nuveen private market strategy available to wealth advisors and the clients through the iCapital platform, adding to an existing list including real estate, private credit, and private equity. 

“Because of the strong fundamentals, risk-adjusted returns, low correlations with traditional investments and inflation protection of the asset class we anticipate significant interest from the qualified wealth investor segment, just as we have seen from institutional investors increasing their allocation to global farmland,” said Keith Jones, head of Global Alternative Investments Product, Nuveen. 

Our global food system is faced with challenges on multiple fronts. And it is these challenges – such as rising population, and a decreasing supply of arable land, together with greater adoption of technology increasing productivity that are driving global farmland values. 

Under its mandate, Nuveen Natural Capital is seeking to ensure a stable food supply and to stabilize income streams for farmers. It also aims to promote environmentally friendly agriculture by establishing solar panel and water circulation systems on farmland for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and the preservation of natural resources while contributing to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

“By 2050, the world’s farmland will likely have to support a population of more than 9 billion people – an increase that will require a 60 percent boost in food production,” said Jones. “Nuveen Natural Capital is responding to this global challenge with a management approach geared toward developing the efficiency, as well as the portfolio value, of farmland assets to their full potential.”

This strategy is also meeting investors where they stand. Nuveen’s annual EQ Global Institutional Survey determined that the percentage of institutional investors on a global scale that plan to increase their allocation to farmland over the next two years increased from zero in 2021 to 18 percent in 2022. 

As a land-focused asset manager, Nuveen has more than 35 years of experience in the field, taking an active, vertically integrated asset management approach that reaches from the property to the portfolio level. 

In addition, Nuveen maintains centralized research, ESG management, and ESG capabilities while utilizing local expert personnel who support property-level actions to enhance productivity and sustainability of farmland assets as well as the portfolio’s overarching diversification of the portfolio. 

Jones concluded, “Our managers focus on identifying diverse farmland sectors that are best positioned to benefit from a broad range of macro dynamics and local attributes, including market and governance factors in specific countries and regions as well as supply and demand factors like changing diets and consumer preferences.”

~ Lynda Kiernan-Stone is editor in chief with GAI Media, and is managing editor and daily contributor for Global AgInvesting’s AgInvesting Weekly News and  Agtech Intel News, as well as HighQuest Group’s Unconventional Ag. She can be reached at lkiernan-stone@globalaginvesting.com.

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