Timberland launches Luxembourg-based Global Forestry fund

The Fund aims to provide UK and European institutional and professional investors with attractive real returns that have minimal correlation with other traditional asset-classes.

Registered in Luxembourg as a Specialised Investment Fund (SIF), Timberland Investment Resources (TIR) Europe's investment strategy is to focus on  building a diversified global portfolio of timberland properties and related assets in Europe, the US and Latin America, as well as more niche market opportunities. TIR-Europe will target a total return of 8-10% per annum net of fees and operating costs, but prior to any investor tax.

Hugh Humfrey, Managing Partner of TIR-Europe, comments: “Our aim for the Fund is to generate above market returns on a risk-adjusted basis for its investors, while focusing on managing risk by building a diversified global portfolio of forest properties that generate cash flows and long-term asset appreciation.”

The investment team will operate with a disciplined and cautious style, underpinned by extensive economic research and forest biometric analysis to identify long-term trends and market inefficiencies.TIR-Europe places a strong emphasis on environmental stewardship and will manage all of the Fund’s investments in accordance with sound principles of natural resource sustainability.

Humfrey adds: “Forestry investments offer excellent inflation hedging characteristics and have generated a long history of stable investment performance consisting of both current income and asset appreciation. As a result, the asset-class tends to offer a great deal of flexibility from both a tax and cash flow planning standpoint, which makes it very compelling given the prevailing market conditions.”

The minimum investment in the fund is $2m and there is a 1.5% annual management fee.

Founded in 2010, TIR-Europe is a privately-owned investment management partnership specialising in forestry and related assets. It forms the European investment business of US-based Timberland Investment Resources which was founded in 2003 and is an independent forestry investment firm with over $750m under management. http://www.tireurope.com/