AGRICULTURAL investment company AACL Holdings Limited will float on the Australian Securities Exchange as the next stage of its development.
AACL managing director Andrew McBain said the listing move would allow investors to sink funds into the management of the business.
The company is offering 44 million shares in the company at 25c each.
With 12 million shares currently issued and $4 million in debt held by parent company Broadacre Asset Management to be converted to 25c shares, AACL will soon have 72 million shares issued if the listing is fully subscribed.
AACL was established by Andrew McBain and and three other investors in Western Australia in 1997. It expanded to Victoria, NSW and South Australia in 2008.
Mr McBain said the business provided "grain co-production", a risk-management tool which allowed investors to provide capital to grain growers to help fund the planting of their crops.
He said growers owned the land and equipment and provided their management to produce crops, while investors supplied much-needed capital to reduce the farmer's overheads.
Growers, investors and AACL shared in returns if production exceeded targets.
If the crop failed, the investors carried that burden, not the farmer.
Mr McBain said the business had expanded rapidly and growers had collectively grown about 600,000 tonnes of wheat, barley and canola, or about 1.5 per cent of the national grain crop.
He said AACL had a goal to produce 10 per cent of the national winter crop.
