Given the poor to modest economic performance of agriculture and food in recent years, it continues to be difficult to get and provide financing at “economic rates” which are profitable for both the lending and recipient enterprises.  Perceived volatility of returns and a lack of familiarity of success drivers for these enterprises have made lenders cautious and related credit risks require ample collateral and relatively steep “risk premiums.”  This is still the case as macroeconomic/monetary policy actions have driven short term interest rates to extremely low levels.  It is still a matter of profitability.  

There may be more credit choices/alternative sources for borrowers, but the rules dictating the decision to loan still are relatively restrictive.  Further complicating these financing decisions is the esoteric nature and uncertain sustainability of government agriculture policy, which has propped up farm income for the last five years.  

The lending sector is consolidating and the credit landscape has changed - and not for the better.  Moreover, agriculture and food companies have typically received modest valuations in the equities markets due to their slow growth rates and mature markets.  And the equities markets overall have been unfavorable during the last 18 months, making stock offerings a limited option for raising capital.  

So how will the agriculture and food industry achieve its credit needs and how will these business decisions be made?  This study will answer these questions and provide analytic systems to evaluate related decisions.  Informa Economics, Inc. (Informa Economics) is proposing a special multi-client study including the provision of related analytic models focused at agriculture and food financing decisions.  This project will provide its participants:

• a strategic evaluation of the financing industry serving agriculture and food;
• short term, intermediate and long term fundamental outlooks and a financial assessment for the agriculture and food sector;
• a subsectoral business/financial evaluation of key supplier and buyer segments of the agriculture and food value chain; and

a set of financial evaluation models (and select case studies) designed to evaluate financial risk by agriculture and food enterprise.

To view and/or print the detailed prospectus in pdf form, click here....

You may also e-mail info@informaecon.com for more information.