First State Global Agribusiness Fund

Why Agribusiness?

The Agribusiness sector is showing signs of a long-term, demand driven trend that is similar to the one experienced by the hard commodities and energy sectors during the past decade. Population growth, rising living standards and increasing use of biofuels are driving strong demand for agricultural products, while decreasing arable land, water shortage and climate change are constraining agricultural supply. Such demand/supply imbalances lead to investment opportunities.

The sub-sectors within the global agribusiness universe have quite diverse risk and return characteristics. Largely, the upstream resource owners, namely fertilisers, plantations/farming, seeds/crop protection, supply chain and equipment/services, have the most attractive risk and return characteristics to generate healthy margins. While the downstream sectors such as food processing, paper and livestock operations have the poorest risk and returns.

Our investment philosophy and process focuses on the quality companies which are able to generate healthy margins.

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Key features:

① Award-winning investment team – managed by First State’s highly regarded Global Resources team.

② The Fund invests in upstream and midstream quality companies in the agricultural value chain which are able to generate healthy margins.

③ A disciplined, global focus with geographic and commodity diversification.

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* Source: CFSGAM, Bloomberg, Rimes, data in USD 5years to 31 Dec 10.
Global Soft Commodity Benchmark: 75% DAXglobal Agribusiness Index & 25% S&P Global Timber & Forestry Index.
Past performance is no indication of future performance.

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First State Investments is the trading name for the following companies which are authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority:
First State Investments (UK) Limited, registered office 3rd Floor, 30 Cannon Street, London, EC4M 6YQ. Registered in England & Wales with company number 2294743.
First State Investment Management (UK) Limited, registered office 23 St. Andrew Square, Edinburgh EH2 1BB. Registered in Scotland with company number SC47708.
First State Investments International Limited, registered office 23 St. Andrew Square, Edinburgh EH2 1BB. Registered in Scotland with company number SC79063.

The following company also carries on business within the First State Investments group:
First State Investment Services (UK) Limited, registered office 3rd Floor, 30 Cannon Street, London, EC4M 6YQ. Registered in England & Wales with company number 3904320.