Centuria Agriculture Fund buys Sundrop Farms asset for $70m

A Centurial Capital Group (ASX: CNI) managed fund has acquired one of South Australia’s largest glasshouse assets, Sundrop Farms, for $70 million from the Morrison & Co Growth Infrastructure Fund.

Acquired by the Centuria Agriculture Fund (CAF), the asset is a 246-hectare site in Port Augusta, SA, and provides four five-hectare glasshouses that run on renewable energy sources.

The deal takes Centuria’s total agriculture assets under management to $421 million, and is supported by a 20 year triple-net lease to Sundrop Farms.

For CAF, Sundrop Farms will be the second agriculture asset in the portfolio, and comes after Centuria acquired a $177 million glasshouse estate in Warragul, Victoria.

The Sundrop Farms site comes with a 1.4 megalitre (ML) reverse osmosis plant, a 1ML desalination plant that processes 600ML of seawater annually, a 25ML storage dam, a packaging warehouse and a 12.5ha concentrated solar energy system that creates sustainable onsite renewable energy.

Sundrop currently grows truss tomatoes in its glasshouses that it distributes across Australia through Coles supermarkets.

Centuria joint CEO Jason Huljich says the ESG credentials of the site resonate well with the company’s ‘ongoing sustainability overlay within CAF’.

“We are pleased to partner with Sundrop who has developed world-first integrated sustainable farming technology, resulting in more predictable volumes of produce arising from the protected nature of its farming activities,” Huljich said.

“Centuria will continue to partner with experienced operators with a strong track record in agricultural innovation and this is one of a series of agricultural acquisitions we intend to deliver throughout FY23 and beyond, with the aim of growing CAF into one of Australia’s largest unlisted, sector-specific agriculture funds.

“This acquisition is another clear example of Centuria executing against its strategy of providing our unlisted investors with access to high quality investment opportunities in the fragmented agriculture sector and adding a new highly sought-after funds management vertical to the Centuria platform.”