Japan’s Dai-ichi Life Insurance has poured US$50 million into a global farmland fund managed by US investment firm Nuveen Natural Capital, citing the potential for the investment to be “highly profitable”.
The Nuveen Global Farmland Fund invests primarily in agricultural land producing a variety of crops, including wheat and corn, and related businesses around the world.
This is Dai-ichi Life’s first investment in a farmland fund.
“Investments in farmland assets can be expected to be highly profitable even during periods of financial market turmoil, thanks to stable sales revenues from agricultural product and farmland leasing fees,” Dai-ichi Life says in a statement on November 17.
“Since they have low correlation to traditional assets such as stocks and bonds, farmland assets are a way of diversifying investments, and, as such, can help contribute to stable, long-term investment earnings from the company’s portfolio.”
Dai-ichi Life says it also intends to use the investment to promote sustainable and environment friendly agriculture, including establishing solar panels and water circulation systems on farmland.
Chicago-based Nuveen Natural Capital, a unit of Nuveen, the investment arm of Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America-College Retirement Equities Fund, has $9.4 billion of assets under management.
Dai-ichi Life had 35.62 trillion yen ($256.7 billion) of total assets as of September 2022.
