As a long standing Mining and Commodities commentator its refreshing to sometimes turn focus onto a real grass roots commodities story that also has an ethical human interest angle.London Aim listed Agriterra Ltd ( LON:AGTA ) is a company with very noble goals.
Agriterra,s strategy is to become one of the largest Agri-operators and leading Food providers in Africa focussed on agricultural investments and ethical sustainable development.
During the global downturn certain commodities have now become big business and new rapidly growing markets are being established across the african continent. One such company that looks set to make huge progress in Africa is Agriterra Ltd. A decision was made by the company to dispose of its previous oil and gas legacy assets earlier this year to rapidly expand its growing Agri businesses across africa.
Under the agreed terms, Agriterra are set to gain up to $50m from the sale of its stake in the Ethiopian South Omo block and a further $17m from the sale of an oil asset in Southern Sudan.These asset sales amount to $67m net to the company and equate to a cash value alone of around 4p per share. The intention is to self fund a huge expansion of its Agricultural businesses across africa where the company are proving that an ethical model of project management can really pay dividends.
Four Key Areas of the Agri Business:
- Beef Ranching
- Maize Farming & Processing
- Cocoa Buying & Trading
- Palm Oil Plantations
It's wholly owned subsidiaries are Desenvolvimento E Comercializacao Agricola Limitada (DECA) and Compagri Limitada (Compagri), as well as the cattle ranching and feedlot production entity Mozbife Limitada (Mozbife), all of which are located in Mozambique. Its flagship agricultural trading facility in Chimoio is focused on the treatment and processing of grain purchased from out-growers.
Agriterra also owns Red Bunch Ventures,a 45.000 hectare Palm Oil plantation operator in Sierra Leone via its aquisition of Shawford Investments Ltd in late 2011.Palm Oil is set to be a key area of growth for agriterra alongside beef,maize and cocoa over the next few years.
The company are led by former english cricket star Phil Edmonds, and Andrew Groves who have worked together for a number of years in previous and current ventures in the mining sector,namely Sable Mining Africa Limited and African Potash Limited. Although…
