SLM Partners holds final close for its first European agriculture fund
SLM Partners has held the final close of SLM Silva Europe Fund at €30 million. This strategy marks SLM Partners’ first move into European agriculture. The strategy has already deployed over €22 million into orchards across Spain and Portugal, building a diversified portfolio across permanent crops - almonds, walnuts, pistachios and olives - and across microclimates within the Iberian peninsula.
SLM Partners is a real asset manager, specialised in regenerative agriculture and sustainable forestry. Their mission is to help scale up regenerative land management.
As they build their agriculture portfolio in Iberia, SLM Partners is partnering with leading permanent crop operators that are experienced, well-integrated within their value chains, and committed to adopting regenerative agriculture practices.
‘There are better ways to practice agriculture than the conventional ones, and we seek out operators that are ready to put these into practice. They’re proving that regenerative agriculture works, that it delivers environmental outcomes and that it’s profitable. We’re in the business of developing investment strategies to accelerate this change.’ - Paul McMahon, co-founder of SLM Partners.
SLM Silva Europe has set forth clear and measurable impact targets, related to carbon sequestration and biodiversity. The portfolio is committed to converting at least 50% of the properties to organic certification, and to demonstrating the assets can be net positive for carbon (i.e., sequestering more carbon in trees and soil than emitted through operations). The investment team has tied their carried interest to achieving these impact KPIs.
This has attracted many impact investors, especially fund-of-funds and family offices seeking investment opportunities that combine real nature impact with competitive Real Asset returns. The latest investor to participate, at the time of final close, was Wire Thrive Fund, a Dutch fund-of-funds that plays a leading role in the impact investing ecosystem.
“This investment marks the first real asset investment from Wire Group’s second fund-of-funds, the Wire Thrive Fund, and builds on its leading role as a global impact investor in the regenerative space. Wire Group’s commitment will allow SLM to invest into an additional asset on the Iberian Peninsula in line with their strategy of bringing regenerative farming with its benefits for both human and environmental health to the mainstream.”– Ronald Janse, Chief Conscious Capital at Wire Group.
About SLM Partners. SLM Partners is a global real assets investment manager with over $760 million in assets under management. They invest in land and real assets, partnering with local operators with expertise in ecological management. All of their strategies seek to generate positive impacts on soil health, water, biodiversity, carbon storage and local communities, while building resilience to climate change and other risks. SLM Partners currently manage funds and separate accounts in the USA, Australia and Europe investing in annual crops, permanent crops, livestock and forestry.
About Wire Group
Wire Group works towards a Conscious Economy - a value(s) driven economy that has wellbeing for all of life as its foundation. We are a holistic wealth partner, and have been a specialist in impact investing and conscious wealth allocation since 2010. As a collective of individuals, families and strategic partners, we research and develop ways to manage wealth in a way that generates multiple returns: social, ecological, financial and personal. Wire Group manages two global impact Fund-of-Funds, the Wire Private Markets Fund and Wire Thrive Fund
Wire Group site visit to almond property in Portugal in the winter.
Almond branch on SLM property in the spring.