Listed agribusiness firm Timbercorp will undergo a major shift in its business model with the group set to evolve into a broad based investment manager, its deputy chief has said.
Timbercorp deputy chief executive Sol Rabinowicz said the shift was in response to managed investment scheme (MIS) regulatory uncertainty and other changes announced earlier this year.
"That's a major shift for us. We've tended to focus on the tax-affected MIS market which has been pure retail across a much narrower universe of agriculture," Rabinowicz said.
"But with the regulatory uncertainty and other changes we have accelerated plans."
Timbercorp is planning to develop a whole range of both retail and wholesale investment opportunities, which will be based around assets in Australia and overseas, he said.
"We hope to launch hopefully sometime in the first half of next year an agribusiness opportunities fund that will invest across a diversified range of agribusiness assets across a whole lot of classes.
"Any investment or asset that is related to agribusiness will be on the list," Rabinowicz said.
The new investment range will target a mixture of both attractive running yields as well some capital growth, he said.
Timbercorp has raised more than 1.3 billion from sales or projects in forestry and horticulture to investors since its foundation in 1992.
