Mantra
The Opportunity As We See It
.avif)
Agriculture is a massive but misunderstood opportunity
Ag is nearly as large as energy as a climate solution, yet nothing has changed in the way it operates, there is little money chasing it, few people understand it; and yet it is a much cheaper source of carbon sequestration than other more talked about alternatives, and in addition new processes and techniques make it much more profitable than in the past.
Ag is centered in large-scale real assets
We are real asset investors looking to improve the operations of large scale ag businesses with substantial existing cash flow and to mitigate carbon at scale along the way, the DNA of Riverstone over the past 25 years is speed and scale - a minimum requirement to bend the curve on global warming, and a large asset footprint is often the greatest source of proprietary deal flow.
How We Invest
We focus narrowly and deeply
We only do what we can do well, where we have unique core competencies. We are highly competitive and we bring conviction and overwhelming force to execute on our key themes. We often say that means “our focus is an inch wide, but a mile deep”.
We target strong returns and significant impact
We recognize that while ag cycles and land investments often require patient capital, investors need to see returns, so we aim to deliver both.
We believe in building up over buying out
Most of what we invest in are buildups rather than buyouts, buildups take better advantage of our capabilities in growing volumes and improving operations rather than just playing the macro, and buildups tend to self-correct through a range of commodity price cycles, since they usually involve a series of acquisitions.
We create alpha through operational improvement and hedging, offering meaningful diversification to investors
Historically ag has provided investors a counter-cyclical hedge against inflation and other dimensions of the global macro, but that is only the starting point: commodity price fluctuations can still destroy an otherwise good ag investment, we have no alpha on the commodity price outlook (nor does anyone else) so we don’t speculate.
We learn from small bets, so we can make big ones
We have learned that our knowledge depth is greatly increased by making small platform investments in new areas that could grow into large successes, you only know 20% of what you need to know before you jump in the pool: we test the waters first. Low risk scale comes next.
How We Operate
.avif)
We have generations of experience in ag
Our team is full of ag lifers, and we work with the foremost ag expert partners, which gives us the confidence to build companies from the ground up rather than simply relying on the macro by gambling on massive buyouts.
We value experience and embrace innovation
We seek the latest approaches, often before wide adoption, if we see proven potential. Where we don’t have unique perspectives or deep experience, we partner with those who do, whether it is on land, livestock, row crops, permanent crops, soil carbon, brand premiums, genetics, ag-tech and more.
We are a small, agile organization
Often in contrast to others in the ag industry, there are no fiefdoms or silos at Riverstone Earth, we are transparent, collaborative and we believe in having everyone in the same room; this extends to our partners and investments.
We put our own skin in the game
We have a significant portion of our own money committed to our investments and we keep a large share of the returns created by our stewardship in the business — a strong motivator to make good investments and stay the course with conviction, seeing them through to fruition.
We invest in great management teams
Management teams are our oxygen, the great ones are impossible to replace upon exit, as a testament to our relationships with our key managers, since inception we have retained every energy and ag management team we have attempted to retain.
Who We Are
We show up, it is 90% of life
Whether in the field, farm, factory, feedlot or beyond, we don’t sit in our offices, we get out there and we show up each day to create proprietary deal flow.
We are committed — for us it is a lifestyle, not a job
Agriculture is a difficult business full of real characters and all is often not as it seems, for us ag is a lifestyle not just a profession. We spend days with key players in the industry and our weekends with high integrity operators, counting them as our best friends and partners.
We are relentlessly curious
We always take the meeting. We ask questions. We read, listen and learn constantly.
We put our own skin in the game
Most of us have known each other for 10+ or more years and we love what we get to do. We make real money doing it and we believe in agriculture and in mitigating climate change and doing so with speed and at scale, so we choose to stay at Riverstone Earth.
We are highly respected and well-liked
We are not private equity people, rather we are ag lifers with deal experience, who see great opportunity in today’s ag supply chain and have the skills and relationships to make things run better. Our high volume deal flow reflects this.
