Farmland Partners Inc. Announces Agreement for Acquisition of 7,400 Acres in Louisiana

Farmland Partners Inc. Announces Agreement for Acquisition of 7,400 Acres in Louisiana

PR Newswire

DENVER, Nov. 30, 2015 /PRNewswire/ — Farmland Partners Inc. (NYSE: FPI) (the “Company”) today announced that it has entered into a purchase agreement to acquire a 7,400 acre farm in Louisiana for a purchase price of $31.8 million in cash. The acquisition is expected to close in the first quarter of next year, subject to customary closing conditions, including satisfactory completion of the Company’s due diligence.

The Company also entered into a three-year lease agreement with the seller of the Louisiana farm. The lease agreement will have rental payments based on a percentage of gross farm proceeds and includes a minimum cash payment for the use of improvements on the farm. Using conservative assumptions of commodity prices and crop yields, we believe the return will be approximately 5.0% annually.

“Our third largest acquisition agreement to date is comprised of roughly 7,400 contiguous, irrigated acres, nearly all of which have been precision leveled. A substantial amount of acreage will be dedicated to growing rice, meaning this transaction will further diversify our portfolio by not only geography, but also crop type,” said Paul Pittman, CEO of the Company. “This agreement, which was enabled in part by the structure of our recently announced $197 million Paris, Illinois pending acquisition, demonstrates our ability to consistently put capital to work at good cap rates.”

About Farmland Partners Inc.

Farmland Partners Inc. is an internally managed real estate company that owns and seeks to acquire high-quality North American farmland and makes loans to farmers secured by farm real estate. The Company owns or has under contact 253 farms with an aggregate of 104,742 acres (including 130 farms totaling 32,319 acres under contract) in Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. The Company elected to be taxed as a real estate investment trust, or REIT, for U.S. federal income tax purposes, commencing with the taxable year ended December 31, 2014.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and other federal securities laws, including statements regarding pending acquisitions, timing of closing and expected revenue and returns from the pending acquisition. Forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties, many of which may be beyond the Company’s control. The Company faces many risks that could cause its actual performance to differ materially from the results contemplated by its forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, fluctuations in crop yields and commodity prices, the risks related to leasing farmland to third-party tenants, including delays in executing new leases, failure to negotiate leases on terms that will enable the Company to achieve its expected returns and the inability to obtain additional financing secured by the Company’s farms on favorable terms, or at all. These forward-looking statements are based upon the Company’s present expectations, but the events, expectations, intentions or prospects suggested by or reflected in these statements are not guaranteed to occur or be achieved, and you should not place undue reliance on such statements. Furthermore, the Company disclaims any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement to reflect changes in underlying assumptions or factors, of new information, data or methods, future events or other changes, except as may be required by law. For a further discussion of these and other factors that could impact the Company’s future results, performance or transactions, see the section entitled “Risk Factors” in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2014 and other documents filed by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/farmland-partners-inc-announces-agreement-for-acquisition-of-7400-acres-in-louisiana-300185069.html

SOURCE Farmland Partners Inc.

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply