October 1, 2021

By Lynda Kiernan-Stone, Global AgInvesting Media

Two pension funds – the UK Pension Protection Fund (PFF), and APG Asset Management (working on behalf of Dutch pension fund ABP) have agreed to acquire a 62 percent stake in Wenita Forest Products Ltd. – the largest timber producer in Otago, New Zealand – from Sinotrans New Zealand. 

This marks the fourth global direct investment in a sustainable, FSC-certified forestry asset for PPF, according to Lead Dubourg-Hrachovec, head of infrastructure, timberland, and farmland for the fund, who commented, “What attracted us to Wenita is its long-established operational track record, mature, high-quality forest portfolio with a close proximity to the deep-sea port of Chalmers, which makes it a very highly prized forestry asset in New Zealand.”

With a history reaching back three decades, Wenita has 30,000 hectares of sustainably managed forests with growing, merchandising, transporting, and marketing logs at the heart of its business. 

Focusing on radiata pine, but also able to supply Douglas fir, larch, Corsican pine, or even eucalyptus, Wenita uses modern technologies to manufacture logs that meet consistent specifications that it supplies to India, China, and Korea.

The remaining 38 percent of Wenita is held by the Australian New Zealand Forest Fund 2, (ANZFF 2) a fund managed by New Forests, which acquired the asset in July 2018 from The Rohatyn Group (TRG), effectively reaching the full deployment of the ANZFF2 fund at US$526 million. 

Headquartered in Sydney since its inception in 2005, New Forests is a certified B corporation with operations in Australia, New Zealand, Southeast Asia, and the U.S. offering high-impact strategies in sustainable forestry and its related sectors. The firm just completed the acquisition of 156,000 acres of forest land in the Hilt-Siskiyou Forest – a mixed conifer forest along the border of California and Oregon – in July of this year, and manages a portfolio of approximately 1 million hectares (2.4 million acres) carrying a value of $4.5 billion spread across sustainable forest plantations, areas of natural forest conservation, carbon projects, rural land, row cropping, and timber processing.

This deal executed by PFF and APG will now bring total management of Wenita under New Forests’ control. 

“Wenita is a well-managed, mature asset of scale with strong cash flows, and in a region with domestic distribution and access to export markets,” said Mark Rogers, senior managing director, Australia, New Zealand and U.S., New Forests.

“New Forests’ continued involvement with Wenita’s management team will help identify new ways to add value to the business including implementation of our sustainable landscape investment approach. Having the support of investment partners, who have invested with us for many years, means our interests are strongly aligned.”

– Lynda Kiernan-Stone is editor with GAI Media, and is managing editor and daily contributor for Global AgInvesting’s AgInvesting Weekly News and  Agtech Intel News, as well as HighQuest Group’s Oilseed & Grain News. She can be reached at lkiernan-stone@globalaginvesting.com.