Business
Raises $5.1 million to Expand
Raises $5.1 million to Expand.
About this update from Pacsco Limited
[{"type":"text","content":"\n RNS Number : 2635B Agriterra Ltd 23 October 2009 \n \nAgriterra Ltd / Ticker: AGTA / Index: AIM / Sector: Agriculture\n23 October 2009\nAgriterra Ltd ('Agriterra' or 'the Company')\nRaises $5.1 million to Expand Beef Ranching Operations & Strengthens Board\n\nAgriterra Ltd, the AIM listed company focussed on the agricultural sector in central and southern Africa, announces that it has conditionally raised approximately $5.1 million (before expenses) by way of a placing of 63,950,000 new ordinary shares of 0.1 pence each in the Company ('the Placing Shares'), with new and existing shareholders at a price of 5 pence per Placing Share ('the Placing Price') ('the Placing'). The funds raised will be used to expand the Company's cattle ranching and feedlot production business, through its subsidiary Mozbife Limitada ('Mozbife'). This expansion is aimed at capitalising on the growing demand for beef in sub-Saharan Africa and at adding value to the Company's portfolio of businesses operating in the African agricultural sector, including two significant grain processing facilities in Mozambique. To strengthen the Company's Board, Euan Kay, who has managed the Company's subsidiary Desenvolvimento E Comercialização Agricola Limitada ('DECA') for the past five years, will join the Board as an Executive Director with immediate effect.\n\nThe Company's aim is to expand the 1,000 hectare Movonde Stud Ranch and develop and stock the recently acquired 20,000 hectare Dombe Ranch with pedigree Beefmaster breeding livestock imported from South Africa. It is the Board's intention to increase Agriterra's total herd from 720 head today to some 10,000 head in the next three years. The Dombe Ranch has been identified as an attractive site due to the grazing quality, good access to irrigation and its close proximity to the Company's grain processing facility in Chimoio, whose by-products from the milling process can be used in part to feed the herd. Agriterra has also acquired a 200 hectare property in the environs of Chimoio where an abattoir and feedlot business will be constructed using some of the proceeds of the Placing.\n \nAgriterra CEO Andrew Groves said, \"Our objective with Mozbife is to grow a substantial cattle ranching business capable of processing 5,000 head of cattle per annum in the n...