Big Sky, Inefficient Market: Why One Investor Bets on Ranches

Beartooth Group invests in ranches. The Bozeman, Mont.-based investment manager has raised a total of about $100 million in a series of private equity funds to buy distressed properties in states such as Colorado, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. It typically does conservation work to restore the land and aims to sell the ranches at a profit.

Managing principal Robert Keith took a circuitous path to the business. When he was growing up in Minneapolis, his family fell in love with the West after vacationing in Jackson Hole in Wyoming. His parents eventually bought a ranch in the state as a ...