Norway's Norfund invests USD10m in Chayton Atlas

Norway's Norfund is investing $10m in Chayton Atlas Investments‚ the commercial agricultural company in which South African investment holding group PSG is the controlling shareholder‚ after it this year bought a stake of 93% for over R276m.

By Sure Kamhunga

3 Oct 2012

The investment by Norfund will be used to fund the development of additional farms and businesses that provide grain drying‚ storage‚ processing and distribution services to existing Chayton farms and other farms in Zambia.

"Chayton's strategy is to aggregate farms into vertically integrated production hubs‚ implement advanced farming methods and irrigation‚ and develop distribution both to domestic markets and exports‚" the company said in a statement on Tuesday.

Piet Mouton‚ the CEO of PSG‚ this week said Chayton had plans to expand by developing more commercial farms and he expected the business to start making profits within three years or less.

PSG holds its stake in Chayton via Zeder Investments‚ the group through which holds PSG's agricultural related interests.