For Alpha in a Real Asset Portfolio, Look Up the Value Chain

何塞Minaya，高级董事总经理和私人市场负责人，TIAA-CREF

对机构投资者之间的兴趣和经验，实际资产从未如此高。亚博赞助欧冠他们提供潜在有吸引力的总回报，投资组合多样化和防止通货膨胀保护的套餐在当今近乎记录低利率和历史悠久的股权估值的环境中越来越多地赢得了越来越多的关注。

It is well known that a portfolio of core real assets – farmland, timberland, energy resources and infrastructure – can provide beta diversification to a traditional portfolio through steady income, capital appreciation, and the intrinsic value of the holdings. What is not widely known is that real assets also confer some advantages to their owners that are not available to holders of financial assets.

By virtue of their close relationship with adjacent companies in the value chain, the owners of real assets are able to identify and act on investment opportunities that would not be known or available to others. Private equity investments in processing and distribution companies that lie further up the value chain can bring real asset managers important benefits, including more efficient capital deployment, potentially attractive total returns, and meaningful diversification. This is a large market that is under penetrated by institutional investors and a source of potential alpha for real asset portfolios.

Obviously, real assets do not exist in an economic vacuum. Once they are produced in raw form, they enter a processing stream in which they are transformed into finished products ready for sale to consumers. Private equity investments in these “value chains” offer the real asset manager a way to extract more value from existing holdings while also diversifying revenue and reducing exposure to commodity prices. They help real asset owners capture more of the full retail value by removing an intermediary and provide market knowledge that helps producers adjust to changing trends in demand. In some instances, the operating asset may also act as an internal hedge to land investments, since profitability is oft en based on volumes processed rather than crop prices; if excess production pushes crop prices down, part of that loss can be off set through the increased revenue from processing higher volumes.

The rationale for investing in businesses adjacent to real assets in the value chain is much the same as for investing in real assets themselves, as they both benefit from the same growth drivers. For example, increased protein consumption, the growing interest in healthy living and rising demand from emerging markets benefit agricultural processors just as they do farmers and farmland owners. These businesses also provide the investors with same benefits as real assets: the potential for current income, long-term capital appreciation, and low correlations with traditional equity or fixed income investments.

从我们的实际资产组合,得到最AA.CREF began looking for private equity investments in 2010 that would complement our farmland holdings. As an almond producer – one of the world’s top five, actually – we have detailed knowledge of how almonds are For Alpha in a Real Asset Portfolio, Look Up the Value Chain - Co-Published by TIAA-CREF Asset Management purchased, processed and marketed, and the amount of value added at each stage of the production chain. We also have relationships with the businesses that perform those tasks and knowledge of prevailing market conditions. As investors, we quickly recognized that controlling some of the stages of production, marketing and delivery — the vertical integration that exists at the intersection of agriculture and infrastructure — would help us to derive additional value while at the same time mitigating some risks.

因此，在2011年，TIAA.CREF在加利福尼亚州的私人持有的杏仁加工商中获得了少数股权股权，以捕获它产生的潜在有吸引力的风险调整回报，并与领先的所有者操作员管理之一投入长期合作伙伴行业的团队。它是投资允许TIAA-CREF改善我们的整体杏仁部门风险返回Profi LE，并帮助我们更好地协调生产和加工，从而提高每个阶段的回报。

我们不仅可以从他们的强制上挖掘，我们与这家杏仁加工程序的投资也有助于我们了解市场并为客户的不同需求定制产品。例如，在日本，大多数买家想购买已经排序和分级的杏仁，以便他们只有小巧，完善的坚果。相比之下，我们在壳牌中销售杏仁，以便该国就业计划的参与者可以用手加入它们的价值。

Almonds are part of our farmland portfolio that is managed by our Illinois-based affi liate Westchester Group. Westchester invests in farmland and provides services to farmers that help maximize their returns. Our private equity investments are predominately made through California-based AGR Partners, which provides investment management, sources minority equity transactions and conducts due diligence in the agribusiness space. Both Westchester and AGR Partners leverage the broad infrastructure and institutional knowledge of TIAA-CREF’s asset management team.

总体而言，我们的策略是利用我们获得的行业知识，我们从生产流中拥有关键因素来使机会主义投资进一步增加价值链。通常，我们有兴趣采取少数民族股份。为我们提供更大的投资机会宇宙，从中选择 - 许多企业由需要资本的家庭拥有，但不希望放弃运营控制 - 以及强大的经营合作伙伴，具有对齐的兴趣。我们特别强调利润率：我们寻找从事批量和增值活动的公司，让我们成为商品价格不佳。我们有一个长期的重点，利用当前收入的股息并允许长期资本升值积累。。

这些材料仅供参考，不应被视为购买或销售这些信息可能相关的产品或服务的推荐或要约。所有实体或人员可能无法使用某些产品和服务。TIAA总账户是保险公司，并未出示投资回报，并无法参加投资者。TIAA.CREF资产管理通过以下实体向TIAA-CREF集团提供投资咨询和投资组合管理服务：教师顾问，Inc。，TIAA-CREF投资管理，LLC，TIAA.CREF替代顾问，LLC和教师保险和年金美国协会。教师顾问，Inc。，TIAA-CREF投资管理，LLC和TIAA-CREF替代顾问，LLC是教师保险和年金协会（TIAA）的注册投资顾问和全资子公司。实际资产投资可能受到环境和政治风险和货币波动的影响。C18734

Stephane Marguier Asset Management Institutional Business Development, EMEA SMarguier@tiaa-cref.org

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