This year, Area One Farms is launching not one, but two new funds to increase our ability to partner with Canadian Farmers who need to expand their farming operation. Featured in Pe Hub’s Buyout Magazine, Joelle Faulkner says,
Area One Farms Fund IV is targeting C$250 million (US$194.4 million) from institutions, with room to raise around C$100 million more.
A cornerstone commitment of C$100 million has been secured from a Canadian institution. The fund has a 10-year term.
Fund V is aimed at Canadian individuals and structured as a permanent-capital vehicle, with liquidity options starting in year five.
It will seek C$50 million to C$100 million to invest in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, where laws limit the ability of institutions to purchase farmland. Faulkner hopes to hold first closes in the summer and to wrap up fundraising by year’s end.
Both of these funds allow us to continue growing our vision to help family farms in Canada. Especially Fund V, which allows us to partner with farmers in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Joelle Faulkner continues,
The idea is to help farmers expand or keep their operations in the family, Faulkner explained.
“Either you’re retiring and you have no kids interested [in farming], in which case you want to sell,” she said. “Or you’re retiring and you have three kids interested, so you have to triple the farm size, and you need so much capital.”
Because Area One’s partners earn income and appreciation on the part of the property they don’t own, “unless they could do it really, truly on their own, they’re better o with us than any other method.”
Follow this link to read the full article: Buyout Magazine May 9, 2018
