OREANDA-NEWS. November 13, 2010. Renaissance Capital announces the formation of a new business unit focused on the emerging markets agriculture sector.

The Global Agriculture Group will provide a seamless investment banking service covering the trading, processing and farming companies which constitute the sector. The team will act as a strategic advisor on mergers, acquisitions, divestments, restructurings and fundraisings across the agriculture value chain, as well as serve public and private companies, national governments and financial institutions.

The Global Agriculture Group will be led by Richard Ferguson, who is joining Renaissance Capital as Global Head of the Agriculture Sector. Previously, Ferguson established an agriculture research group within Nomura in 2006 before founding FAR Consultants, which provides research and advisory services to agricultural companies and financial institutions across emerging markets.

The new business will provide the following strengths:

Strategic research capabilities which will focus on the structural shifts taking place across the agriculture sector

Local, in-depth company research covering all major emerging and frontier markets

Local market knowledge backed by specialists in London

Strong investment banking capabilities providing agriculture clients with unrivalled access to world capital markets

Said Peter Vanhecke, CEO of Renaissance Capital in Ukraine, Belarus, Central and Eastern Europe, who manages the agriculture sector out of Renaissance’s Kiev hub: “The agriculture sector is an area where Renaissance aims for emerging markets dominance worldwide. The creation of the Global Agriculture Group marks an important step in this direction. Its strategic research and execution capabilities will be backed by on-the-ground presence in key agriculture economies, creating unique opportunities for companies and investors”.

With the world population expected to reach over 9 billion by 2050, increasing demand for food and urbanization trends will multiply the need for grains to feed animals for meat production. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, to feed the word’s larger,  more urban population, food production must increase by 70%, with annual cereal production increasing from the current 2.1bn to 3bn tons and annual meat production rising from the current 270m tons to 470m tons. In the same period, the steadily increasing demand for biofuels will make the agriculture sector vitally important.