From The Australian today: The listed Rural Funds Group is...

From The Australian today:
The listed Rural Funds Group is raising about $150 million in fresh equity to help its expand its cattle property empire.
The group (RFF) was in trading halt today as it tapped investors to fund the purchase of five feedlots from JBS, the country’s largest meat and food processing company.
Businessman Paul Lederer, the high-profile chairman and co-owner of A-League club Western Sydney Wanderers, sold his Primo Smallgoods business to Brazil’s JBS for $1.45 billion in 2014.
The new deal covers five feedlots across Queensland and NSW and will see Rural Funds Group buy the underlying property for about $53m.
It will also provide a guarantee of about $75m to agricultural funds manager Rural Funds Management, that will manage the feedlots.
The deal is substantial with banks believed to be providing about $250m worth of finance to back RFM’s purchase of the operations.
RFM will essentially run the feedlots on a cost-plus basis, lowering its risk, and the guarantee could generate income of about 9 per cent for the listed property fund.
The raising is being led by investment bank UBS and signals a further push into the cattle property by the trust after its initial move last year.
Rural Funds already owns an overall rural land portfolio worth about $700m and bought three cattle properties, Natal Downs, Longton and Narellan, in northern Queensland for $53m last year.