December 3, 2020

By Lynda Kiernan, Global AgInvesting Media

On November 12 GAI News shared the launch of the INVL Sustainable Timberland and Farmland Fund II (STAFF II) by Lithuania’s INVL Asset Management. 

With a targeted goal of EUR100 million (US$118 million), the fund’s initial offering has raised EUR32.45 million (US$38.3 million) to-date from private investors to back sustainably-managed agricultural land and forests in the Baltic Sea region and Central and Eastern Europe.

Registered in Luxembourg and administered by Apex Group, one of Europe’s top funds services providers, INVL Asset Management stated that the STAFF II is intended for private investors from the EU bloc.

Founded in 1991 as part of the Invalda INVL group, INVL Asset Management has 28 years of experience in managing private equity assets and growing leaders across the Baltic and CEE regions. The group’s companies manage pension funds, mutual funds, private equity and alternative investments, as well as individual portfolios for a total AUM exceeding EUR1 billion (US$1.18 billion).

Martynas Samulionis, a partner of the INVL Sustainable Forest and Agricultural Land Fund II, noted that STAFF II will initially start with a concentrated focus on agricultural land and coniferous forests in the Baltics that show high productivity and potential for consolidation before geographically expanding outward.

“We’ll start the fund’s activities ‘closer to home’, looking for acquisitions in the Baltic countries,” said Samulionis. “We will invest in Baltic coniferous forests and agricultural land with a high level of productivity and big consolidation potential. Later we plan to expand the portfolio in Eastern EU countries where investment returns are attractive and the regulatory environment is stable.”

Today, GAI News is sharing that STAFF II has made its first capital commitment, and has acquired seven companies from ag business group Linas Agro Group for EUR13.6 million (US$16.45 million). 

These companies indirectly own approximately 2,000 hectares (4,942 acres) of farmland in central Lithuania, which will be leased back for a period of 25 years by Linas Agro.

Founded 28 years ago with the launch of its first company UAB Linas ir Viza, Linas Agro Group began as a rapeseed exporter to Western Europe. Over nearly three decades the group has grown to control 38 subsidiaries across Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Ukraine focusing on grain, oilseeds, raw feedstock, milk, and poultry. Today Linas Agro is the largest poultry producer in Latvia, a key milk producer in Lithuania, and controls a network of grain storage facilities across Lithuania and Latvia. 

“This is the first investment for our new fund, further to its first close earlier this month and meets our goal to consolidate long-term portfolios of top-quality agricultural and forestry land and manage them according to the highest standards of sustainability,” said Samulionis.

Simulionis notes, has an unlimited timeline structure, something that he said is a strong draw for ag investors.

“It is important that the timeframe for the STAFF II structure is unlimited thus allowing for longer hold periods for the acquired properties,” he said.  “This is an attractive option for agribusiness participants in the Baltics and enables the freeing up of capital through the transfer of land to a long-term investor and then leasing it thereafter.”

– Lynda Kiernan is editor with GAI Media, and is managing editor and daily contributor for Global AgInvesting’s AgInvesting Weekly News and  Agtech Intel News, and HighQuest Group’s Oilseed & Grain News. She is also a contributor to the GAI Gazette. She can be reached at lkiernan@globalaginvesting.com.