Agriculture: Inside an Evolving Asset Class

AgWire Interview Series Takes a Fresh Look at Ag’s Investment Status

By Marc Dresner, IIR

Agrarian societies have been around since the Bronze Age; yet from an investment perspective, agriculture remains something of a novelty—albeit one that’s attracting significant attention of late.

Since things like soil, water, husbandry, etc., would make for unlikely passing fads, it’s a safe bet that agriculture as an investment asset class may be coming into its own.

At least that’s John Chu’s assessment.

The managing director of institutional equity research for agri-industry at AltaCorp Capital noted that as far as the S&P goes, agriculture has historically been more or less a corral of fertilizers and chemicals.

“There really wasn’t enough in the agriculture space to qualify it as an independent sector for a particular focus,” Chu told AgWire.

But new player proliferation amidst consolidating bellwethers, technological innovation, and breakthroughs in productivity and sustainability are stirring an otherwise commoditized giant.

Add opportunities in the BRICs to the mix and the agriculture investment equation becomes pretty appealing.

In this episode of AgWire, Chu surveys the factors conspiring to transform agriculture’s asset class status.

Listen to this episode of AgWire here.

Read a transcript of the interview here.

Editor’s note: AgWire is produced by AgReturn, a global conference series focused on the technologies, companies and investment strategies on the cutting edge of agriculture.

Next up: AgReturn San Francisco, March 13-15! For more information or to register, click here.

ABOUT AGWIRE
AgWire is an executive interview series featuring the business leaders, investment experts, innovators and entrepreneurs at the forefront of the agriculture industry. Each episode explores the trends, technologies and drivers shaping the world of agriculture today.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR/INTERVIEWER
Marc Dresner is an IIR USA communication lead specializing in audience engagement. He is the former executive editor of Research Business Report, a confidential newsletter for the market research industry. He may be reached at mdresner@iirusa.com. Follow him @mdrezz.

AgReturn San Francisco Presents: Joshua Hofheimer, Counsel, Sidley Austin LLP

We are proud to present, our esteemed colleague Joshua Hofheimer, Counsul at Sidley Austin LLP. Joshua will be leading the charge as Conference Chairman at AgReturn SanFrancisco in March 2012. 

We look forward to his stewardship throughout the conference as we discuss the emerging opportunities in water and agriculture.

In addition, we are excited to announce that we will be releasing a podcast with Joshua later on this month. Given Joshua’s extensive background in agtech development, joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions, crop technology and business development strategies for agribusiness, the podcast promises to be an insightful stimulus towards the larger AgReturn dialogue.

Be sure to come back after the 21^st of February to hear Joshua’s podcast and get a taste of what's to come at AgReturn San Francisco!

-          The AgReturn Team

Speaker Spotlight! AgReturnSan Francisco presents:

Joshua Hofheimer – Counsel at Sidley Austin LLP

JOSHUA T. HOFHEIMER combines more than a decade of corporate and commercial legal practice with the experience having run a public company to bring his clients focused, practical counsel to help them grow their business and maximize their value and returns. 

His practice focuses on representing clients in agriculture, life sciences and information technology sectors. Mr. Hofheimer’s work spans a broad array of technology, intellectual property and commercial transactions ranging from agricultural technology to medical devices and pharmaceuticals, software, Internet and new media transactions and includes developing and implementing business strategies for commercialization of multiple intellectual property platforms. 

Notably, he represented Monsanto Company in the ground-breaking 2007 Yield and Stress Collaboration Agreement with BASF Plant Sciences LLC to develop high yield and stress tolerant transgenic plant products. 

He also has negotiated research, funding and commercialization agreements and technology spin-outs, as well as developed strategies to exploit proprietary products growing out of the research programs of agri-tech and bio-tech clientele.

From 2008-2010, Mr. Hofheimer was the CEO/Managing Director of Australia’s first publicly listed ag-biotech companies, Hexima Limited (HXL:ASX). While at Hexima, Mr. Hofheimer led the company’s successful effort to forge a commercial path for its disease control platform, entering into a development and commercialization agreement with Dupont company, Pioneer Hi-Bred. The company established further commercial relationships with leading agribusinesses, Monsanto and Bayer Crop Science, and Australian research centers. 

Mr. Hofheimer also currently serves on the board of directors of the Australian Center for Plant Functional Genomics, advising on international commercial and strategic development.

To register, visit www.AgReturnSanFran.com. Attendees can register for all three days at one low price or make the choice to attend the Agriculture 2.0 Symposium or Main Conference only. Brochures can be downloaded online.

And don't forget to follow us @agreturn  and  join us on LinkedIn and Facebook, where you can network all year-round with more of your AGReturn colleagues.

Welcome to AgReturn!

Hello, and welcome to the new AgReturn blog! I am thrilled to have a place where people can come year-round to talk about the issues and stories that are important to all of us. I hope that this will evolve into a platform and sounding board for innovative ideas, strategies, success stories, connections, and as a call to action for the ag investment sector.

We will be sharing our own thoughts, and as we move forward each of the dedicated AgReturn team members will be introducing themselves. We will also be producing podcasts and written interviews with some of our expert conference contributors as well as publishing original content from guest bloggers on the topics of climate change, farmland strategy, commodities analysis, new technologies and much more. If you are interested in contributing, feel free to give us a shout!

I want this to be a fun and informative space to talk about anything and everything that has an impact on the sustainable natural resources portfolio—from the riverbank to The World Bank. Let’s get started!

Kate Westfall is the director of the AgReturn conference series, AgReturn Latin America and the InfraReturn Investment Forum. Kate holds a Master’s Degree in Food Culture and Communications from La Università degli Studi di Scienze Gastronomiche in Italy’s Emilia Romagna region and currently resides in New York City. Follow her @agrikate