ADM Capital announced that it had recently provided a loan of USD18m to finance a rights issue between the shareholders of Yeeda Pastoral Company. Yeeda is the largest fully integrated red meat production, processing and distribution business in Western Australia. It has 85,000 head of cattle and 1.5m hectares of land. The beef it produces is "halal", qualifying it for export to Islamic countries across the Middle East and Northern Africa as well as the Asian Growth Markets. The Company is in the final stages of commissioning a processing facility which will significantly ramp up its turnover from local and export meat sales. "We are seeing strong growth in demand for beef in line with increasing income and changing dietary patterns in Asia. This coupled with food security issues in China give us strong confidence in the future of Australian beef production and in Yeeda," said Chris Botsford, co-founder of ADM Capital, an investment manager with over two decades of investment experience across Asia.
"The Halal aspect is particularly appealing as our team spend a lot of time in Indonesia, Malaysia and the Middle East and have witnessed first-hand the need for high quality Halal agri product," added Botsford.There are a number of companies in this sector that may have a good business model but lack the scale required to enter international markets. ADM is focussed on developing the Agri business growth story and helping these companies."I am delighted with the speed and flexibility that ADM Capital has shown in being responsive to our financing needs," said Mervyn Key, Co-Founder of Yeeda Pastoral Company. "I can't believe our good fortune - the last week has been long but really worth it and I think we have all achieved a much better outcome than we had originally planned for. Now that we have cemented our transaction, I am really looking forward to working with ADM Capital to manage and maximize our strategy."ADM Capital believes that this could be one of many deals to come in the agribusiness sector from the Australasian region.
About ADM Capital
ADM Capital began investing in Asia in 1998 providing capital and financing solutions to help companies grow. The firm, with US$1.3 billion under management, has offices in Hong Kong, London, Istanbul, Mumbai, and Almaty, and is a signatory to the Principles for Responsible Investing. Established in 2006, ADM Capital Foundation puts non-profit capital to use to address environmental challenges across Asia. For more information, please visit www.admcap.com and www.admcf.org