May 22, 2023

By Lynda Kiernan-Stone, Global AgInvesting Media

Not even four months after its last buy-in, The Board of the Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Association (LACERA) has voted their unanimous approval for a secondary purchase totaling  $46.4 million in TIAA-CREF Global Agriculture II. 

In February of this year, LACERA deployed a total investment of $456 million to TIAA-CREF Global Agriculture Funds, committing $191 million to TIAA-CREF Global Agriculture, and another $265 million to TIAA-CREF Global Agriculture II through secondary purchases. 

In 2011, TIAA-CREF launched its Global Agriculture Unit, which focuses on agricultural investments and farmland in the U.S, Australia, and Brazil, and closed in May 2012 with capital commitments totaling $2 billion, surpassing its initial funding goal of $1.5 billion. Managed by TIAA affiliate Teachers Advisors, Inc., initial institutional investors in the fund included AP2, British Columbia Investment Management Corporation, the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (Caisse), and others. 

At the time, Jose Minaya, managing director and head of global natural resources and infrastructure investments at TIAA-CREF, commented, “We see increased protein consumption in developing economies and alternative energy mandates driving increased demand for food, fiber and fuel from a limited resource – land. Direct investment in farmland provides access to the key driver of food production. In addition, we believe sustainable land management is imperative to help create value over the long term, and we employ best practices across our portfolio accordingly.”

Just two years later, in 2014, building on the success of Global Agriculture I, TIAA-CREF secured commitments of US$1.4 billion for its Global Agriculture II fund from three limited partnerships according to a document filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. This second fund eventually closed with $3 billion in capital in August 2015, exceeding its initial target of $2.5 billion – no doubt, boosted by an investment of $750 million the previous year from AP2. 

Now overseen by TIAA-CREF’s investment manager Nuveen, working together with Westchester, these funds focus on investing in row and permanent crops in the U.S., Australia, Brazil, Chile, and New Zealand concentrating on sustainability, conservation of resources, and social justice under new ESG KPIs, part of its new ESG Framework designed to replace the original guidelines developed in 2013.

~ 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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