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Farm and asset management company Gunn Agri announced the fourth and final close for its Gunn Agri Cattle Fund, having secured capital investments from institutional and sophisticated investors from Europe, North America, and Australia.  

Gunn Agri Partners was founded by Bill Gunn, Alan Hoppe, Daniel Hough and Bradley Wheaton. Alan Hoppe is a former Macquarie Agricultural Services Chief Operating Officer and was based in Brazil. All founders have extensive experience in agricultural operations, investing and funds management, in Australia, North and South America, Europe and Africa.

Managed by Gunn Agri Partners, the Gunn Agri Cattle Fund is the flagship Cattle Fund strategy for the firm, and once fully deployed, is expected to reach assets under management valued at A$200 million (US$155.5 million).

Driven by the strength of the Australian cattle market, strong demand fundamentals, and Australia’s competitive cost of production, Gunn Agri is focusing on properties in Queensland, but also in Northern New South Wales and the Northern Territory.

“We target properties that can add value to the existing portfolio by helping to mitigate weather risk and market risk,” Gunn Agri CEO Alan Hoppe told GAI News in October 2016, adding,“We are undertaking due diligence on a number of potential acquisitions that will expand our breeder numbers and also give us greater capacity to grow out our calves to heavier sale weights.”

Upon this foundation, Gunn Agri has built an impressive portfolio of Australian cattle assets consisting of five aggregations spread across the far northern region of Queensland to the New South Wales border in a relatively short period of time.

These properties, which are managed by the Cunningham Cattle Company,  include:

~ the 400,000-hectare Esmeralda Station in North Queensland, which was closed in February 2016 and is being used to produce weaners for grow-out in other locations. Since its acquisition, Esmeralda has seen developments including 30 percent more watering points, and improved fencing and yards.

~The 51,598 hectare Katandra Aggregation, which includes Katandra and Illalong properties where young cattle are grown out.

~ the 36,095-hectare Maranoa Aggregation in Southwestern Queensland which operates as a grow-out location and includes Ballaroo, Ekari Park, and Fairview.

~ and, the 18,338-hectare Goodar Station, which was closed on in March 2016 and is being used for backgrounding, fattening, breeding, and for fodder production.

To date, the fund’s returns have exceed expected benchmarks, and have successfully performed to the fund’s strategy through the development of assets and the enhancing of operations returns.

In 2016, after a string of rapid acquisitions, the fund appeared to have overcome the typical “J-Curve” effect, exceeding A$1.00 unit value after two quarters of operation.

At the time, Bill Gunn, chairman of Gunn Agri Partners, said, “This is a solid result for the Fund’s investors. Overcoming the traditional ‘J-Curve’ effect of acquisition, transaction and establishment costs to achieve an increase in the unit value in the first year of operation.”

-Lynda Kiernan