Olam's Australian orchards business sells water rights for $456.4m

It tapped into a Canadian pension board for the deal.

Agri business Olam Orchards Australia (OOA) has entered into an agreement to sell 89,085 megalitres of its permanent water rights in Australia to a related entity of the Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments), one of Canada’s largest pension investment managers, for a total consideration of $456.4m, according to the company’s announcement.

In a separate transaction, PSP Investments has also agreed to acquire approximately 12,000 hectares of almond orchards and related assets in Victoria, Australia, all previously leased to OOA. Both the almond orchards and the associated water rights will continue to be operated by OOA.

In line with the agreement, the two parties will operate on a new, tiered revenue sharing arrangement for the almond orchards, related assets and permanent water rights, to which OOA will pay PSP Investments a share of revenue from the almond orchards.