Tag Archives: swiss
Syrian opposition to attend peace conference
Syrian opposition to attend peace conference (AP) / 19 January 2014 The Syrian National Coalition’s media office said that of 73 voters, 58 voted in favour of attending the conference. The main, western-backed Syrian opposition group voted on Saturday in favour of attending next week’s peace conference aimed at ending the country’s bloody civil war. The Syrian National Coalition’s media office said that of 73 voters, 58 voted in favour of attending the conference. It added that 14 voted against, two abstained and one placed a blank ballot. The coalition was under huge pressure from its Western and Arab sponsors to attend the peace talks, scheduled to open on Wednesday in the Swiss city of Montreux. The Syrian government has already said it will attend the UN-sponsored talks. It will be the first face-to-face meeting between the representatives of the Syrian government and the opposition since the country’s crisis began in March 2011, killing more than 100,000 people and displacing millions. The US and Russia have been trying to hold the peace conference since last year and it has been repeatedly delayed. Both sides finally agreed to sit together on the negotiations table after dropping some of their conditions. The aim of the conference, dubbed Geneva 2, is to agree on a roadmap for Syria based on one adopted by the US, Russia and other major powers in June 2012. That plan includes the creation of a transitional government and eventual elections. One of the main demands of the opposition was that President Bashar Al Assad agrees to step down before going to the conference. With his government troops keeping their momentum on the ground, Assad’s government has said he will not surrender power and may run again in elections due in mid-2014. Many coalition members were hesitant to attend a conference that has little chance of success and will burn the last shred of credibility the group has with powerful rebels on the ground, who reject the talks. Many members boycotted the Istanbul meetings that began on Friday, forcing the coalition’s legal committee to approve the decision in a simple majority vote. The coalition’s media office said the group’s leader, Ahmad Al Jarba, will give a speech “to the Syrian people” later Saturday. For more news from Khaleej Times, follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/khaleejtimes , and on Twitter at @khaleejtimes Continue reading
Pension Funds Want To Invest In Farmland
March 7, 2013 – 9:43 Photo: Oana Pavelescu A number of major pension funds have decided to join forces to increase investment in arable land, an area that historically has been under-capitalized, transmit Reuters Wednesday. An example is the Swiss fund Adveq that talks with three European pension funds and asset management fund in South Korea to buy farmland. Last year one of the largest institutional investors in the world, TIAA-CREF, has joined forces with several pension funds, including British Colombia Investment Management Corporation and AP2 to create an investment vehicle worth two billion dollars to buy farmland. This new approach could attract significant funding from pension funds and other institutional investors to arable land, a sector where pension funds are reluctant to invest themselves. ‘We believe that agriculture and arable land is an asset class that is still developing, “said Director of TIAA-CREF, Biff Ourso. “By combining forces to create savings and transparency that many investors looking for her today,” added Ourso. Investors are attracted by arable land amid increasing global demand for food and low prices due to agricultural land compared to traditional assets. However before pension funds have adopted a cautious attitude towards this sector as several NGOs have rung alarm bells at the possibility of massive purchases of farmland by foreign investors to push up food prices. “Agriculture is a sensitive topic for two reasons: the first is that there is a fundamental right to food and the second is that the land is considered sacred in any country,” said Mahendra Shah consultant.’My opinion is that pension funds are afraid to go it alone in this area and want to share the risks with other partners, “added Shah. A study by Macquarie in 2012 shows that institutional investment in arable land accounted for 30-40 billion, while the total amount of arable land amounts to 8.400 billion dollars. So far, institutional investors have generally focused on regions that are net exporters of food including North America, Australia, South America and Central and Eastern Europe. Continue reading
Farmland — Gold You Can Eat
by Chris Bennett in Farm Press Blog Will investors continue to park their money on farmland? Speculation on a farmland crash hasn’t put a dent in the market. Talk of bubbles or crashes hasn’t put a dent in the farmland market, and if the end is nigh — nobody is blinking. Farmland is “gold I can eat” to Steve Romick, a heavyweight investor and managing partner at FPA Funds. Farmland purchases have moved far beyond the agriculture industry, with insurance agencies, specialized investors, foreign firms and pension funds all throwing elbows in a bidding war. Romick, in an interview with Forbes , answered the “Why farmland now?” question by comparing it with the gold market: “I don’t know how to value gold. I don’t know if it should be a thousand dollars an ounce, the rough cost to pull it out of the ground, or $1,600 an ounce, where it is today, or whether it should be $2,000 or God forbid it’s $4,000 because government may take it away from you … “I look at farmland. Farmland has increased in price. But farmland, interestingly, will benefit from the same things that gold will benefit from. If there’s inflation, farmland will benefit. If there’s a decline in fiat currencies, particularly the U.S. dollar, farmland will benefit. Ag prices are denominated in dollars. So if the dollar drops by 50 percent versus the won, for example, in Korea they can buy twice as much or their economy can benefit by not having to spend as much for the same amount of food.” Traditional investments often have been anemic and the poor returns have helped carve a channel for new dollars to flow toward cropland; dollars that would typically have gone elsewhere. The rise in farmland prices and the pace of sales is brisk, with the Midwest leading the spike. Iowa, South Dakota and Nebraska have doubled their 2005 farmland values. Iowa acreage averages $8,296 per acre, reflecting the confidence in corn and commodity demand, and an Iowa farm recently went for $21,900 per acre. In 2012, a Swiss bank bought 9,800 acres of Wisconsin cropland for $67.5 million. UBS AgriVest Farmland Fund Inc., a Connecticut-based farm real estate fund, is expected to close on a $108-million bid for 29,000 farmland acres in Wisconsin and Texas, according to Farmland Investor Letter . The value of the purchases is dizzying and the number of investor players beyond ag is growing. Midwest farm values get the most attention, but coast-to-coast, the same cropland value pattern is evident. California is a prime example, where farmland values grew to $7,200 in 2012. Almond acreage in Tulare County can bring close to $20,000 per acre. Continue reading
