George Washington University to Lift Investment in Agriculture

By Rudy Ruitenberg

July 3 (Bloomberg) -- George Washington University’s investment office, which manages the university’s $1 billion endowment fund, will lift farm investments to 10 percent of its portfolio, said Rodney Lake, an analyst at the university.

“A 10 percent allocation is where we’re headed, we’re at 6 percent right now,” Lake, senior investment analyst at the university’s investment office, said at the World Agri Invest Congress in London yesterday.

The university’s investment office sees 10 percent to 15 percent as “the appropriate rate of return prospect” on its agriculture investments, according to Lake. The fund has invested in farms in Latin America and Eastern Europe, and Lake said he currently considers Australia and Latin America attractive regions to invest in farming.

Political risk in a country like Kazakhstan makes buying into farm-related industries there, such as fertilizer, more attractive than investing in actual farming because of better returns, Lake said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Rudy Ruitenberg in Paris at rruitenberg@bloomberg.net .

Last Updated: July 3, 2009 08:02 EDT

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