Global AgInvesting Europe 2012

GAI Europe moves to London in 2012, and will once again bring together leading global end investors, fund managers, academics, policy experts and agribusiness industry executives and representatives of multilateral, governmental agencies and non-governmental organizations to explore the opportunities and challenges of investing in agriculture.

Global agricultural production and trade, which is a $2.52 trillion industry accounting for approximately 3.5% of the world’s economic activity, represents an emerging asset class for private and institutional investors. After suffering from decades of underinvestment, the sector is attracting the interest of institutional and private capital due to the combination of several factors: exceptionally strong fundamentals, the opportunity that real ag assets provide to hedge investments against inflation, and that returns on agricultural assets have low correlation with other asset classes.

The fundamentals of global agriculture are compelling. A growing world population, improving diets in the developing world due to growing disposable income and new demand for biomass feed stocks used for alternative fuel/industrial applications are expected to continue driving demand for agricultural commodities. To meet this demand, even after taking into account projected productivity improvements, would require the addition of more arable farmland than can be sustainably (from an economic-social-environmental perspective) brought into production globally. This is expected to result in continued increases in volatility in crop prices and provide opportunities for improved profitability and valuations across many sectors of the value chain over the coming decade and beyond.

Developing an agricultural investment program represents a complex and hence challenging undertaking. There are a wide range of investment opportunities that require a deep and nuanced understanding of the industry in order to assure that they are properly evaluated. End investors face a myriad of choices which include where and how to invest, and how to evaluate and select the best managers.

GAI Europe 2012 will build off of the recent success of our flagship event, in New York, which in April 2012 attracted over 700 attendees who represented over:

• $3.5 trillion in aggregated institutional assets managed by attending institutional investors
• 25 million acres under cultivation by attending companies
• $12.5 billion of farmland assets managed by attending fund managers

GAI Europe 2012 will help end investors understand different strategies and different risk/reward exposures that are being pursued by fund managers within the ag space. They will hear from fund managers about the challenges and opportunities presented by different geographies and operating strategies across illiquid investment vehicles (farmland, infrastructure and ag private equity), as well as liquid investment alternatives such as agricultural-focused hedge funds, public equities and commodities. End investors interested in developing a deeper understanding of the compelling fundamentals driving the ag sector can learn from leading analysts, academics and economists who will be presenting at the Short Course in Ag Fundamentals on Monday 03 December from 13:30 to 17:00h.