Limoneira buys 757 acres of orchards in San Joaquin Valley
Limoneira is buying property at the Sheldon Ranch in the San Joaquin Valley.
Limoneira, a 120-year-old agribusiness headquartered in Santa Paula, has acquired 757 acres of lemon, orange and specialty citrus orchards in San Joaquin Valley.
The deal closed Dec. 2 and the purchase price was about $15.1 million. Limoneira announced in July that it was acquiring 157 acres at the same location for $3.3 million. The orchards were acquired through purchase options in operating leases the company has had since 2012 for approximately 1,000 acres of lemon, orange, specialty citrus and other crops.
The Sheldon Ranch lease agreements include base rent of $500 per acre and contingent rent of 50 percent of the operating profit of the leased property. Total rent for fiscal year 2015 on the acquired property is estimated to be about $1 million and was $1.4 million for fiscal year 2014.
“We are pleased to complete the acquisition of the orchards that were part of the Sheldon Ranch leases. We have recently acquired approximately 900 acres of land that was previously leased in the highly productive San Joaquin Valley, and this is expected to generate incremental operating results and cash flows resulting from the elimination of lease expense beginning in fiscal year 2016,” said Limoneira President and CEO Harold Edwards. “Since going public in 2010, we have acquired approximately 3,300 acres of agricultural property totaling approximately $48.5 million. In addition, as we begin to realize cash flow from our recent real estate development agreements, we remain focused on capitalizing on strategic and accretive acquisition opportunities to further expand our global agribusiness.”
• Contact Glenn Rabinowitz@[email protected].
