With a $128 million purchase, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board has made a large investment in Saskatchewan farmland.
The investment management organization announced Dec. 12 that it has agreed to buy the assets of Assiniboia Farmland LP.
Assiniboia, founded in 2005, owns 115,000 acres of farmland in the province. The deal is expected to close in January.
“We have always said that we would sell into a rising market and not wait until after the farmland market had peaked to create a liquidity opportunity for investors,” said Assiniboia president Doug Emsley in a news release.
The pension plan board, which launched an agriculture investment program last year, manages a fund worth $192.8 billion for 18 million Canadians.
“Farmland is an attractive asset class that has historically delivered stable, risk-adjusted returns and the global outlook for agriculture in general is positive due to increasing demand for agricultural products,” Andre Bourbonnais, the board’s senior vice-president for private investments, said in a separate news release.
