EXCITEMENT about agribusiness is starting to materialise as dining boom-bluster blows into real trade winds and Suncorp bank’s former head of business banking Troy Constance is taking an interesting tack on the trend.
He’s managing director of a new venture, Sprout Agribusiness, which he said will build new links for producers and businesses throughout the supply chain as well as for international capital into Australian agriculture.
“It’s the first fully integrated financial services firm for the food and agribusiness sector,” Mr Constance said.
On his rise through Suncorp Mr Constance lead the agribusiness division and farms sheep and cattle on his property at Yass.
He said international precedent, particularity in the United States, is too relevant to ignore. Retailers want to invest in producers and their provenance and producers will look to capitalise on retail opportunities.
“That is going to be a mega trend and it’s already happening in US. Consumers want to understand what they are eating and where it comes from,” Mr Constance said.
“Our firm provides one-stop-shop advice to farmers and investors on those whole of supply chain opportunities for that reason.”
Untapped investment lays with high net worth people and estate, especially in South East Asia, Mr Constance said.
“We want to attract capital that is family oriented. That could come from a large family business with money in bonds.”
Family funds, which typically get a return of around three per cent on their bonds, are logical ag investors, Mr Constance said.
“They’ve got an appetite for long term arrangements, whereas institutional investors can be impatient.
“Agricultural investments can be up and down, but over a 10 year period it’s very good.
Mr Constance is keen to break his banking shackles and dig deep into farmers’ enterprises.
“As a banker you can’t make a very big difference to family businesses. You simply flog debt. But (Sprout) can look at every part of a farm business including insurance and estate planning,” Mr Constance said.
“I saw too many cases where simple steps in accounting or governance and so on would have helped, but as a banker I was unable to give that advice – due to regulatory requirements. We’re hoping to make a bigger difference with Sprout.”
Sprout Agribusiness has offices in Longreach, Brisbane, Orange and Yass, with six staff.
“We are aiming to go nationwide with 25 sites across the country,” Mr Constance said.
