Bonnefield Holds First Close of Farmland Fund

August 1, 2016

Canada’s largest farmland property and investment manager, Bonnefield Financial, announced the first closing of its Bonnefield Canadian Farmland LP IV with a $60 million investment from an existing Canadian investor.

With offices in Ottawa and Toronto, Bonnefield employs a lease-back investment model, offering farmers an alternative to debt or direct equity financing to fund expansion and create economies of scale as farmers seek maximum productivity.

The firm’s current $400 million portfolio includes more than 80,000 acres of Canadian farmland, leased back to more than 70 tenant farmers across British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, according to the company website.

“Bonnefield bridges the gap between investors and farm operators, helping to create value for investors, increase profitability for operators and preserve farmland for farming,” said Tom Eisenhauer, Bonnefield’s president and CEO in a company statement.

Along with the announcement of an initial close for LP IV, Bonnefield announced the completed deployment of Bonnefield Canadian Farmland LP III at $261 million. With its final close, LP III ranks as Canada’s most valuable and diverse farmland portfolio in the country, partnering with 53 farmers from British Columbia to Nova Scotia.

Bonnefield originally announced LP III’s initial close with $100 million in various commitments from Canadian investors in July 2013. At the time, the firm also completed one of the largest farmland deals in Canadian history, buying over 6,500 acres of potato producing farmland in Dufferin County, Ontario from the Highland Companies. The financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed, however, at the time Tom Eisenhauer told the Financial Post that the value of the deal was “more than $50 million, a lot of money.”

With an initial goal of $200 million for LP III, the fund ended up oversubscribed upon its completed deployment at $261 million.

Lynda Kiernan

 

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