Lonsdale Securities has moved into agribusiness research to provide information and reports for financial advisers.
Lonsdale has set up the Lonsec Agribusiness Research Group in March and according to head of research Rob McGregor, has already provided seven reports to advisers requesting agribusiness investment information.
Lonsec now joins the likes of van Eyk, InvestorWeb and PIR Agribusiness Research as providers of information on agribusiness investments.
Lonsec’s agribusiness research is the first part of a larger scope of research that will also look into the property syndication market in 2002. Lonsdale head of research Claude Silverii says the plan is to publish a detailed rating system for agribusiness and property investments by 2002.
“We will make our recommended lists available to dealer groups on subscription, thereby alleviating much of the compliance process to which financial planners are exposed to when providing clients with somewhat complex investment products,” he says.
Silverii says Lonsdale decided to enter the agribusiness research market because it is currently not very well covered, and it is also a response to the strong demand shown for it from their client base of advisers which number in the hundreds.
Rob Macgregor says he consults with Morningstar for research information and is looking to bring the quant methods used in to the Lonsdale process. He says Lonsec looks for six criteria in agribusiness investments: the industry (viability and outlook); the project (whether sales are secured by contract); the promoter (ability and credibility of team); the investment (project and crop maturity, ownership of assets, ATO rulings and tax benefits); the financials (internal rate of return); and administration (risk management, insurance, compliance).
Lonsec has not decided what the format of the overall rating will be (stars or a mark out of 100 etc), but once the individual criteria have been assessed, Lonsec will then make their recommendations to the advisers.
By the year end, the group expects to have a report tally of more than 20.
