We provide full-service corporate counsel to clients across the agribusiness sector, and facilitate the structuring, financing, and successful completion of agribusiness transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures, strategic alliances, recapitalizations, and debt and equity offerings.  In addition, our M&A team has substantial experience representing companies of all sizes in acquiring, selling, licensing, jointly developing, outsourcing, and exploiting technology.  We regularly represent clients in the purchase and sale of agribusiness companies and farming or livestock operations.  Our clients grow, purchase, process, finance and sell feed, commodity crops, permanent and specialty crops, and livestock.

Kutak Rock also has extensive experience in representing lenders and borrowers engaged in agriculture.  Our agricultural finance practice represents financial institutions, cooperatives and agricultural companies in structuring complex agribusiness financial transactions. We have particular experience advising clients on financings for growers and processors of almost every type of agricultural product. Loan products include mortgage financing and operating loans for crop production, dairies, and feedlots. Our working knowledge of agricultural producers and agribusiness companies permits us to provide effective and practical advice to clients in terms of risk assessment, structuring, and documenting loan transactions.

We have deep industry knowledge of the intricacies in lending, securing collateral and restructuring transactions in the agricultural context. Our strong industry relationships in agribusiness trade organizations underpin our in-depth understanding of the industry’s political climate and the likely impact of future regulation.  This, combined with our experience, means we are well-positioned to partner with clients seeking to maximize economic and other opportunities in the agribusiness sector.

We advise on:

• Mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures, strategic alliances and other organizational structuring
• Formation issues for agricultural start-ups, such as venture capital, strategic investments, commercial agreements and intellectual property protection
• Regulatory requirements for new agricultural finance products
• Syndicated and non-syndicated loan transactions involving both unsecured and secured by agricultural commodities
• Statutory agricultural liens, UCC security interests, Food Security Act (effective financing statements and direct notices) and other farm product collateral issues involved in agricultural lending
• Agricultural bankruptcies, workouts and receiverships; collection of defaulted loans from growers and processors
• Insolvency and creditors’ rights matters, including PACA, Packers and Stockyards Act and producer’s lien law issues
• Freehold land and leasehold land ownership, including pastoral/agricultural leases in each state and territory
• Water entitlements and trading and other irrigation arrangements
• Industry-specific laws and regulators and industry compliance, including state licensing issues
• Hedging of agricultural commodities, including representation of debt issuers and swap counterparties
• Standards and certifications applicable to different industries, including organic certification for both domestic and export markets
• Environmental compliance
• Relationship between the energy sectors and the agriculture sector
• Supply and off-take agreements, storage and transloading agreements, transportation agreements, and milling agreements