agrofibra collected 976.8 million pesos with its initial public offering (OPI) through the Institutional Stock Market (biva), thus becoming the first real estate investment trust (Fibra) in the Mexican agri-food sector.
The resources raised with this issuance will be used to acquire an initial portfolio of six properties that represent an initial investment of 2,206 million pesos and a little more than three million square meters (m2) of gross rentable area (GLA). These properties are located in the states of Morelos, Colima Y San Luis Potosi.
“The resources of the offer are to acquire real estate in the agri-food sector that will be leased to producers focused on the production of high-value crops (such as tomato, pepper, bell pepper, avocado, cucumber and mango) that are produced in greenhouses and which are in high demand in the export markets linked to the T-MEC”explained the president of Agrofiber, Jorge Guajardo Hesles.
In a conference on the occasion of the placement of the vehicle, the vice president of Administration and Finance of Agrofibra, david suarezexplained that in a year they plan to form a portfolio with at least 20 properties, which will imply an investment of 7,157 million pesos.
Therefore, they plan to acquire, in the coming months, another portfolio with 14 properties for 4,951 million pesos. These assets total 4.8 million square meters of GLA and are located in Guanajuato, Jalisco, San Luis Potosí, Morelos, Querétaro, Colima and Sonora.
David Suárez highlighted that the T-MEC and the nearshoring They are generating a significant demand for industrial spaces dedicated to the country’s agricultural sector, due to the export of food products.
“Mexico is receiving foreign investment in an important way, 32,000 million dollars in the first nine months of this year, which is more than what was received in all of last year,” he pointed out.
Therefore, he emphasized that all the dynamics generated by the T-MEC for the agricultural sector, which grows above the gross domestic product (GDP) of Mexico and that there is also a lot of demand from the United States, makes us think that the percentages of employment and the demand that there will be for the type of assets that we have is very high”.
The initial objective of the first agricultural fiber was to raise at least 5,250 million pesos.
However, executives explained that they decided to be cautious with the raising of resources and to space out the acquisitions, for which reason they will carry out subsequent issuances of capital according to their investment needs.
“There is a pipeline for what we plan to issue. If we are going to issue that amount, we are going to do it in tranches. It is not a fact that we did not see demand, there is demand,” said David Suárez.
The purpose was to make the issuance at this time to complete the agreed acquisitions and generate a “record track”, to then continue with the next acquisitions and subsequent issuances of capital, he reiterated.
