The Rohatyn Group (TRG), an asset manager specializing in emerging markets, announced it has agreed to acquire GMO Renewable Resources, LLC (GMORR) – a joint venture between global investment management firm Grantham, Mayo, Van Otterloo & Co (GMO) and GMORR principals that invests in forestry and agriculture opportunities. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. 

Founded in 1997 by Eva Greger, GMORR invests in hardwood and softwood forests across a range of species, and manages direct investments in rural land, crop, and livestock assets that are involved in the production of food, fiber, or energy through a series of pooled funds and separate accounts. All told, GMORR manages a portfolio of land assets totaling 600,000 hectares valued at $2.1 billion across eight countries, with 34 percent of its assets under management invested in emerging markets.

Since its founding in 2002, TRG has grown from a single hedge fund to a fully diversified asset manager with both public and private market offerings and a focus on emerging markets, according to the company website. The firm’s private market strategies include private equity, private credit, real estate, infrastructure, and green energy, with private equity funds deployed in more than 30 countries across Latin America, Central Europe, the Middle East, sub-Saharan Africa, Central Asia, India, and Asia Pacific. These private vehicles have included TRG Growth Fund I, TRG Growth Fund II, TRG Growth Fund co-investments, TRG Special Opportunity Fund, TRG Africa Fund, and TRG Latin America Private Equity Fund.

The firm’s public markets strategies focus on long-term products focused on fixed income and currencies, along with hedge funds active in 25 emerging markets.

International investors in TRG’s offerings include multiple sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, and institutional investors, and the firm sees the addition of GMORR as enhancing its investment capabilities while strengthening the firm’s institutional investor relationships. Once the deal closes, TRG will have $6.6 billion in total assets under management and 18 global offices, with new locations in both Boston, Massachusetts, and New Zealand.

“Timber and agriculture, both important sectors in many of the countries where TRG invests, are a natural complement to our existing knowledge base and skill set. Powerful secular dynamics, including growth of the middle class, increasing urbanization, and access to sustainable resources, underpin opportunities in emerging markets as well as forestry and agriculture. Each layer of knowledge that we add enriches TRG’s ability to deliver best-in-class returns to our LPs across asset classes and increases our relevance to a broader range of investors. We believe that GMORR is the ideal partner with whom to pursue the promising synergies between emerging markets and global timber and agriculture.”

For GMORR, the integration with TRG offers a deep well of experience and understanding in regard to long-term investment structures, and offers GMORR the ability to extend its footprint beyond its current markets of operation to new locations.

“TRG provides a complementary platform from which to extend our long track record of forestry and agriculture investing around the world,” said Eva Greger, founder and managing director of GMORR, adding that the deal with TRG will enable GMORR to better continue to “create investment opportunities for our clients in sustainable, innovative, long-term forestry and agriculture investments.”

-Lynda Kiernan

Lynda Kiernan is Editor with GAI Media and daily contributor to GAI News. If you would like to submit a contribution for consideration, please contact Ms. Kiernan at lkiernan@globalaginvesting.com.