Farming News - 100 year old Strutt and Parker Farms Ltd goes up for sale
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100 year old Strutt and Parker Farms Ltd goes up for sale
Strutt & Parker (Farms) Ltd is up for sale for an estimated £200 million. The sale will include more than 30,000 acres of East Anglian farmland.
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The land, which stretches across Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Norfolk, also contains commercial and residential units, as well as renewable energy projects.
The farming business includes four main farms, contracting and joint ventures, a sheep enterprise across Ministry of Defence land in Norfolk, a farming enterprise in Cambridgeshire and Lavenham Fen Farms.
This will be the biggest farming sale since 2014, when The Co-operative Group sold its 16,000 hectares fro £249 million to the Wellcome Trust.
Guaranteed farming subsidies have been provided by the government at the current EU level until the 2022 election, of which Strutt & Parker received £1,267,000 in subsidies through the rural payments agency in 2017.
Corporate finance partner at Deloitte, David Jones said: "In our experience, interest is likely to come from a number of sources, due to the scale and diverse asset base, and we anticipate there will be interest from both domestic and overseas high-net-worth individuals.
"For the overseas buyer, the current weakness of the pound against the dollar adds to the attraction. We also anticipate enquiries from institutions looking for long-term asset-backed investments."
The company will be sold in a single transaction. It is expected that the business will bring medium- to long-term opportunities to realise substantial capital and revenue growth.