Award-winning brokerage Robinson Sewell Partners (RSP) has launched its annual roadshow with an initial line-up of three regional events expected to be expanded across the eastern seaboard.
RSP has teamed up with the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) to deliver a series of lectures for farmers on topics such as the valuation of agricultural land, benefits of fixed versus floating interest rates, and farm tax depreciation.
The first roadshow is being held today in Toowoomba, with future events planned in Gunnedah on 8 June and Parkes on 9 June.
Speakers from RSP, as well as other specialist firms such as Herron Todd White, AgriPath, Telstra and NSW DPI, will give the talks.
“Education has always been a big part of our thought leadership program and our business,” Ian Robinson, director of RSP, told
Australian Broker. “It helps us position ourselves in our expertise in our market and also to give back to local and regional communities that don’t really have access to a lot of information or education around finance.”
With each roadshow focusing on different topics, RSP acts as the finance specialist and partners with other experts to bring a variety of knowledge to a broad audience, Robinson said.
The topic that RSP will be covering at these current roadshows is the type of interest rates that will be better for agricultural business.
“Our angle on this one is more about breaking down the rationale whether your business should be fixing or floating, doing the summation and analytics around business activity and cash flow, borrowing capability versus capital flexibility, and the different types of products that are available.”
This includes being mindful of the opaque pricing parameters that the banks can overlay in these products and calculating the true effective yield of what a business will be paying, he said.
“It’s getting business owners and farmers to be thinking differently about whether they should be fixing or floating and what they should be analysing in the business before even considering either option.”
Phase two of the roadshows will expand the event out to Southern NSW, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania with dates yet to be confirmed.
RSP has been operating for seven years as a business and has run these roadshows for the past four years.
For the three confirmed events, RSP’s corporate partner Andrew Toole and equipment finance specialist Michael Stout will be speaking in addition to other experts. For further roadshows, Robinson and the firm’s second director Brad Sewell will step in to head up the lectures.
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