October 24, 2017

Canada’s largest farmland property and investment manager, Bonnefield Financial, announced a second closing of $70 million for its Bonnefield Canadian Farmland LP IV. This commitment, which comes from a top Canadian pension fund, nearly doubles the total capital for the fund at $130 million.

The initial $60 million closing for LP IV occurred in July of last year, when the firm announced a commitment from an existing Canadian investor.

At the same time, Bonnefield announced the complete deployment of its Bonnefield Canadian Farmland LP III – surpassing its original target of $200 million at an oversubscribed $261 million. With its final close, LP III ranked as Canada’s most valuable and diverse farmland portfolio at the time, partnering with 53 farmers from British Columbia to Nova Scotia.

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.

“This new commitment from one of Canada’s largest institutions shows the attractiveness of Bonnefield’s business model,” said Tom Eisenhauer, Bonnefield’s CEO.  “Canadian farmers use our long-term, farmland sale-leaseback solutions to grow, reduce debt, and help transition their farm to the next generation.  At the same time, our approach produces consistently attractive, low-risk, low-volatility returns for investors. And best of all, it enables us to ensure prime farmland across Canada is protected for farming use.”

This commitment also brings the value of Bonnefield’s total assets under management to more than $500 million across its three active funds. Its portfolio consists of approximately 100,000 acres across Canada, which are being farmed by 70 Canadian farmer-managers.

“Our asset growth is the result of strong interest from both institutional and high-net-worth investors in farmland as an attractive, inflation-hedging investment,” said Eisenhauer.

Evergreen

Earlier this year Bonnefield also announced the launch of its Bonnefield Canadian Farmland Evergreen LP – a new open-ended farmland fund designed for Canadian investors.

The new fund was created through the integration of assets of two of Bonnefield’s established closed-ended farmland funds – LP I, which was created in 2010, and LP II, which was launched in 2013. Through the combination of these assets into an open-ended structure, it formed an investment vehicle that can offer enhanced re-investment, diversification, and liquidity for investors.

Concurrent with the launch of Bonnefield Canadian Farmland Evergreen LP, Bonnefield also announced the fund’s first close on January 1, 2017. Through this closing, additional commitments on behalf of existing investors brought Evergreen LP’s combined net assets to $80 million, and formed a farmland portfolio that includes land in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, and New Brunswick.

-Lynda Kiernan